As forecast, the new vehicle market again stormed past the million mark in sales in 2012, with a final figure of 1,112,032 – 103,595 vehicle sales or 10.3% ahead of the same period in 2011.
The passenger market at 576,855 vehicles is up by 17,541 vehicle sales (3.1%). The only loss occurred in the large car segment down 14,981(-19.2%) all other segments returned improved results with the medium car segment up 11,690 (15.4%), the sports car segment up 6867 (47.1%), the small car segment up 8077 (3.3%), the light car segment up 5164 (3.9%), the people mover segment up 531 (4.8%), and the upper large car segment up 193 (6.3%).
But the biggest winner was the sports utility vehicle market – at 305,825 vehicles it is running ahead of the same period in 2011 by 61,689 vehicles (25.3%).
All SUV segments contributed with the SUV small segment up 24,148 vehicle sales (53.5%); SUV large up 19,071 (18.8%); the SUV medium segment up 19,829 vehicle sales (22.0%) and the SUV upper large segment up 1641 (12.5%), all returning improved results on the 2011 volumes.
The light commercial market at 198,302 vehicles, ran 21,576 vehicles (12.2%) ahead of the same period in 2011.
Losses occurred in the pick-up/cab chassis 4X2 segment, down 2946 vehicle sales (-5.6%), the van/cc 2.5t-3.5t segment down 386 vehicle sales (-2.2%) and light bus <20 seats down 48 vehicle sales (-1.6%). The other segments returned improved results on the same period last year with the pick-up/cab chassis 4×4 segment, up 24,686 vehicle sales (24.7%), the van/cc <2.5t segment, up 146 vehicle sales (4.6%) and the light bus 20+ seats segment up 124 vehicle sales (14.6%).
The heavy commercial market at 31,050 vehicles is up on the same period in 2011 by 2789 vehicle sales (9.9%).
Key points on the December results were:
– The December 2012 market of 95,427 new vehicle sales is an increase of 12,968 vehicle sales or 15.7% on December 2011 (82,459 vehicle sales).
– The December 2012 industry volume is down 2,920 or 2.97% on November 2012 (98,347 vehicles).
– The passenger vehicle market is up 4854 vehicle sales (10.6%) over the same month last year: the sports utility market is up by 3181 vehicle sales (14.2%), the light commercial market is up by 4731 vehicle sales (40.3%), and the heavy commercial vehicle market is up by 202 vehicle sales (7.8%) versus December 2011.
– Toyota was market leader in December, followed by Mazda and Holden. Toyota leads Mazda with a margin of 11,615 vehicle sales, or 12.2 market share points.
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