The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, (FCAI), says new vehicle sales in January 2021 follow the strong recovery shown by the market in the final months of 2020 and reflects the built-up demand over the COVID lockdown.
The Toyota Hilux was the best-selling vehicle in January 2021 with sales of 3913 vehicles, followed by the Ford Ranger (3120), the Toyota RAV4 (3066), the Toyota Landcruiser (2388) and the Mazda CX5 (2081).
A total of 79,666 vehicles were sold in January 2021, across the period, up 11.1% on January 2020 sales when 71,731 vehicles were sold.
This positive result was reflected across every state and territory with sales increases ranging between 38.7% (Northern Territory) and 1.9% (Victoria) compared to January 2020.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber says the January result was a very positive sign for the industry.
“During the past three months sales had increased by 12.4% compared to the corresponding period twelve months earlier. The January sales numbers are indicative of positive consumer confidence in the domestic economy,” Weber says.
“With attractive interest rates and a range of other economic indicators encouraging consumption, we hope to see this trend in new vehicle purchasing continue through 2021,” he says.
The sales growth in January 2021 compared to January 2020 was due to increased demand from private buyers, with sales up 25.4% in that category. Sales to business buyers was down 1.3%, with sales to Government and Rental also falling by 11.2% and 12.4% respectively.
Sales of passenger vehicles were down 9.3% on January 2020, while sales of SUVs were up 17.4% and sales of light commercial vehicles were up 24.6%.
Toyota was the leading brand in January with sales of 16,819 vehicles (21.1%), followed by Mazda with 8508 (10.7%), Hyundai with 5951 (7.5%), Kia with 5500 (6.9%) and Mitsubishi with 5179 (6.5%).
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