Oz August Sales Rise With Another Lift From SUVs

Small SUVs helped drive Australian new-vehicle sales up 2.9% year-on-year in August to 90,705 for a year-to-date result ahead 3.2% at 761,440 units.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries CEO Tony Weber says the continuing increase in the popularity of small SUVs saw sales in the segment grow more than 50% last month.

“Sales of SUVs increased 19.4% on August 2014 figures, with a large part of that growth in the small-SUV segment, where sales increased by 51.3%,” Weber says in a statement.

Medium SUV sales rose 15.8% and large SUV deliveries grew 4.5%. The upper-large SUV segment fell 3.3%.

Car sales slipped 4.6% and light-commercial-vehicles were down 6.1%.

Sales to private and business buyers both increased, with private-buyer purchases up 1.7% and business buys ahead 4.4%.

“Both buyer types increasingly chose SUVs, with private buyers taking home 22% more SUVs than in August 2014 and business buyers driving away with 12.1% more,” Weber says.

Sales to government fell 6.3%.

Toyota won the top spot for the month with 14,505 deliveries for a 16% market share, ahead of Hyundai with 9,505 (10.5%), Mazda 9,166 (10.1%), GM Holden 7,870 (8.8%) and Mitsubishi 5,574 (6.1%).

August’s top-selling model was the Toyota Corolla with 3,050, followed by the Mazda3 (2,673), Holden Commodore (2,144), Hyundai i30 (2,098) and Ford Ranger (2,096).

Year-to-date Toyota has delivered 133,059 units for a 17.5% market share, but down 170 units and from 18.1% prior-year. Despite the softer numbers in a rising market, Toyota remained well clear of Mazda with 75,113 deliveries (9.9%) and Hyundai with 68,115 (8.9%).

Hyundai’s second-place August finish moved the South Korean brand ahead of GM Holden into third place overall in year-to-date sales. Hyundai’s car sales of 5,775 units for a 14.5% market share put it in the second position ahead of GM Holden, Volkswagen and Mazda.

Mazda’s August result was supported by record sales of its CX-3 SUV and another strong showing from the CX-5 SUV. Mazda’s August result was up 21.7% year-on-year and kept the automaker, now ahead 11.3% year-to-date, on track to beat its annual sales record of 103,886 units set in 2013.

Subaru passed a milestone as its best-ever August sales of 3,361 units – up 15.9% year-on-year – pushed the brand beyond 800,000 deliveries since its launch in Australia 42 years ago.

Outback sales for the year to date were up 326.3% at 7,239 units and the station wagon already has beaten the previous annual record of 6,658 units set in 2004.

Managing Director Nick Senior says Subaru sold 40,502 vehicles in Australia last year and 28,374 after eight months this year. “We’re also on track for another record year in 2015, which would mean annual records in 16 out of 18 years.”