February 2020 new car sales figures for Australia
SUV category continues to dominate market.
Australia’s love affair with SUVs continued in February with nearly half of all new cars sold in the month belonging to the category.
Figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show there were 79,940 new cars sold in February with 39,304, or 49.2%, of these SUVs.
There were 22,648 passenger vehicles (28.3%) and 15,523 light commercial vehicles (19.4%) also sold during that period.
Dealers across Queensland sold15,918 vehicles in February, down 8.5% on the same period last year.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said the volume of sales continued a downward monthly trend.
“The Australian new vehicle market has now seen a downturn each month for the past 23 months,” Mr Weber said.
“In economic terms, a recession is declared after two quarters of negative growth – and this industry has now seen seven consecutive quarters of negative growth.
“There is no doubt that this is an extraordinarily difficult time for the automotive industry – a situation sadly underlined by the recent announcement of Holden’s withdrawal from the Australian market.”
END OF THE LION
HOLDEN DEALERS FEAR FINANCIAL HIT
The continued downturn has been blamed on a number of factors which have affected consumer confidence ranging from political and financial uncertainty to environmental factors such as floods, droughts, bushfires and now the coronavirus outbreak.
The Toyota HiLux, with 3421 sales, retained the title of Australia’s best-selling vehicle, closely followed by the Toyota RAV4 (3375) and Ford Ranger (3202) and the Toyota Corolla (fourth) with 2520 sales.
Top 10 individual models by sales volume (Source: VFACTS):
| Vehicle | Feb '20 | Feb '19 | % difference |
| Toyota HiLux | 3421 | 4431 | -22.8% |
| Toyota RAV4 | 3375 | 1639 | 105.9% |
| Ford Ranger | 3202 | 3377 | -5.2% |
| Toyota Corolla | 2520 | 2070 | 21.7% |
| Hyundai i30 | 2152 | 1929 | 11.6% |
| Mazda CX-5 | 1969 | 2357 | -16.5% |
| Kia Cerato | 1873 | 1553 | 20.6% |
| Toyota LandCruiser | 1839 | 1804 | 1.9% |
| Mitsubishi Triton | 1673 | 3155 | -47% |
| Toyota Camry | 1445 | 1298 | 11.3% |
Toyota was the most popular brand with 17,679 vehicles sales for the month and 22.1% market share.
Mazda, with 7230 sales, was the second highest selling brand for the month, claiming 9% market share.
Top 10 new car sales by manufacturer (Source: VFACTS):
| February 2020 | ||
| Brand | Volume | Share |
| Toyota | 17,679 | 22.1% |
| Mazda | 7230 | 9.0% |
| Hyundai | 5945 | 7.4% |
| Mitsubishi | 5513 | 6.9% |
| Kia | 5120 | 6.4% |
| Ford | 4856 | 6.1% |
| Nissan | 3804 | 4.8% |
| Volkswagen | 3633 | 4.5% |
| Honda | 3522 | 4.4% |
| Subaru | 2603 | 3.3% |
