Sales of SUVs and commercial vehicles have seen figures for August this year up by 4.6% against the same month in 2015.

SALES OF NEW vehicles in August (2016) have realised a 4.6% increase on sales in the same month last year (August 2015). And, year to date, sales of new vehicles are up by 3% compared with the same period last year.

And, while sales of passenger vehicles declined by 4.2% on August 2015 figures, the sales of both SUVs and commercial vehicles (Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux, etc) is up by more than 10% compared to August last year.

“Australians purchased 94,909 new motor vehicles in August 2016, led by strong demand for SUVs and Light Commercials” the Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, said. “Demand for SUVs and Light Commercials continues to drive the market, with both these segments increasing sales by over 10% compared to August 2015.”

Passenger cars still lead the market, just, in overall volume (41.3%), but SUVs are making inroads, and fast, with market share growing to 37.3% (In August 2015 it was just 34.8%). Commercial vehicles hold 18.7% of the market compared to last year when they held 17.4%.

Toyota is still the dominant brand in the market with 19.7% of total sales. Toyota is followed by Mazda (9.8%), Holden (8.1%), Ford (7.2%) and Hyundai (6.9%).

The Toyota Corolla was the highest-selling vehicle in August 2016 with sales of 3554, followed by the Toyota Hi-Lux (3311) Ford Ranger (2964), Mazda 3 (2818) and Toyota Camry (2458). For the first time in a few months, Hyundai i30 was not inside the top five.