2024 Vehicle Sales – Surging Ahead

Despite some perceptions to the contrary, official New Vehicle Sales data for 2024 published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) suggests that the automotive manufacturers have increasingly mitigated the supply chain issues that plagued the industry (and us consumers), mainly between 2020 and 2022.

While total vehicle sales reported of 1,220,607 were only up just .3% on 2023, there were another 16,000+ sales by Tesla and Polestar not reported to the FCAI. So the actual increase in sales on 2023 was approximately 1.7%.

Vehicle Segment Shifts

Passenger Vehicles continued their slide by a further 3.8%, in favour of SUVs. In the last 5 years, Passenger Vehicle sales have fallen by 112,000+ units, i.e. 55%. Conversely, in the same period SUVs have surged 212,000+ units, i.e. 44% demonstrating undeniable consumer preferences and the huge range of SUVs available.  

2024 Vehicle Sales

Overall Market - Toyota Sales Dominance    

Yet again, Toyota dominated (as they have done for the past 2+ decades) with 241,296 sales, that’s 19.8% of the overall market!

Their Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) focussed product range has clearly been a winner for them, representing almost half their sales. Notably, total market Hybrid Passenger Vehicle sales were up 39.9% and Hybrid SUV sales up a staggering 89.8% on 2023.

Toyota continues to lead the way in the Small Car segment with Corolla representing an impressive 33.9% of sales, though the Kia Cerato demonstrated its growing popularity with a strong surge in sales to take second position away from the Mazda 3.

Of course, it’s the all-important SUV segment where Toyota shines, even without new Landcruiser Prado deliveries until its November release. The undisputed leader in the critical Medium SUV segment was the RAV4 with 58,718 units leaving dealerships, representing 25.5% of this segment. This made RAV4 the second biggest selling vehicle last year, eclipsing its stablemate the HiLux but not the Ford Ranger which held onto the top position.    

Toyota had 3 of the top 10 best-selling vehicles – Rav4 (2nd), HiLux (3rd) and Corolla (7th).

Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Total sales of 172,696 vehicles demonstrated a massive 76% increase on 2023, with 118,081 units of these being Toyota hybrids. Toyota’s most popular hybrid models (in sales volume order) were: RAV4, Corolla, Camry, Kluger and Yaris.

Battery Electric Vehicles

Sales were up 4.7% on 2023 but their growth slowed, despite increased choice. Now representing 7.4% of the overall market, we expect their growth to surge once again as even more new models hit the market in 2025 and infrastructure improves, although at snail’s pace!      

Battery Electric Vehicles

Notable Manufacturers Results

  • Ford – overhauled Mazda to claim 2nd spot with a stunning 14.1% lift in annual sales and 8.2% market share, mainly on the back of Ranger and Everest which represented 69% of their 100,170 total
  • Mazda – zoomed backwards on 2023 by 4,021 units and lost market share but held on for 3rd place overall
  • Kia – lifted sales by 7.4% to finish a credible 4th with 81,787 units sold. Cerato, Sportage and Sorento performed well, with EV5s now also starting to hit the road
  • Mitsubishi – performed strongly to increase sales by 17.4% to 74,547 units to round out the top 5. The ASX, Outlander and Pajero Sport all enjoyed stronger sales  
  • Hyundai – lost ground on 2023 by 4.7% with total sales of 71,664. Tucson went backwards in the critical Medium SUV segment, while Hyundai will be hoping for better things from a full year of sales with its new Santa Fe in the market      
  • MG – surprisingly they also went backwards from their unprecedented 2023 sale success, dropping 7,754 units to finish with 50,592
  • Isuzu Ute – continued the success of the D-Max and MU-X range with a solid 6.2% lift in sales to 48,172
  • Nissan – surged ahead with an additional 5,908 units on 2023, a 15% increase
  • Great Wall Motors (GWM) – continued to build on their success, posting a 17.5% increase in sales with a total of 42,782
  • Subaru – slipped out of the top 10 and dropped 5,510 units on 2023
  • Volkswagen – down 16.8% on 2023 sales
  • BYD – blew past their 2023 sales with a 64.5% increase with an expanded product range and keen pricing. One of the fastest growing brands in the Aus market, along with Chery
  • Tesla – now with much fiercer competition from other BEV suppliers, Telsa Model 3 and Y sales dropped a combined 3,593 units

Buyer Types

Fleet sales were up 4.4% from 2023, while overall Private sales fell by 2.5%. The most notable statistic was a 14.5% increase in Government purchases.

2025 Prospects

It is envisaged that Hybrid vehicles will continue to surge, with some customers still hedging their bets on going full electric. However, BEVs have great momentum and even more of them will be arriving in 2025, increasing price competitiveness and choice.

Brands we’ve never heard of to date will increasingly arrive from China and tempt buyers based on price, features and long warranties.

Stay tuned for an interesting year!