FCAI January new car sales figures released
New car sales have started slowly in 2020, with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) new car sales data for January showing a 12.5 percent decline in sales from January 2019.
71,371 new cars were sold in January in a challenging month for dealers, with extenuating circumstances such as the devastating bushfire season, recent storms and outbreak of the coronavirus all playing apart in the drop in sales according to FCAI CEO Tony Weber..
“Given the broad range of environmental, financial, international and political issues facing Australia during January, it is no surprise to see the new vehicle market has reported a conservative start to the year,” said Weber.
January 2020 also marked the release of a new reporting process for new car sales by the FCAI, which aims to stamp out the OEM and dealer practice of reporting cars as sold when they are not to hit targets.
Toyota claimed 20.6 percent of the market share for January, selling 14,809 vehicles, while Mazda finished second with 6,695 sales and Hyundai finished third with 5,443 sales.
Kia looks set to carry their momentum from a strong 2019 across to 2020 with the South Korean brand the only one in the top 13 to record a growth in sales. Kia sold 4,705 vehicles to finish fifth.
The Toyota HiLux was once again Australia’s favourite vehicle for the month, selling 2,968 units to finish just ahead of the Ford Ranger (2,624 sales).
The Corolla (third, 2,370 sales) and RAV4 (fourth, 2,290 sales) ensured Toyota’s dominance at the pointy end of the sales results once again, with the Prado (1,230 sales) sneaking into the top 15 sellers in 13th.
SUVs were once again the big seller in January, with a staggering 49.3 percent of all new cars sold in January belonging to the popular segment.
Hybrid vehicles slowly continue to become more popular, with the steady stream of new models hitting Australian shores resulting in hybrid SUVs sales growing by 92.7% to 1,476 while hybrid passenger car sales grew by 13.9 percent to 1,924.
Source: Caradvice | VFACTS: January 2020 new car sales results
6 Feb 2020
