New car sales up 15.1% in Australia with Japanese brands still dominant

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has published its sales figures for August, revealing Australian customers took delivery of 109,966 new vehicles.

This is up 15.4% on August '22, and is the highest sales volume for August on record, following a similarly unprecedented July, while year on year sales are up 9.9%.

The list was dominated by SUVs, which made up 56.7% of the total sales volume with 62,313 sales, a 28.3% increase on July and 17.7% more than August '22.

Light commercial vehicles (utes, vans) were next most popular, with 24,031 sales or 21.9%, including the Toyota Hilux, which was the best selling model with 5,762 sales.

However, FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber pointed out it isn't just gas guzzlers driving car sales, with the number of Aussies opting for more environmentally friendly choices also increasing.

"As consumers continue to embrace low emissions technologies we are seeing growth in electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicle sales," Mr Webber said.

"More than one-in-six vehicles sold in the month of August featured low emissions technologies."

Electric vehicles made up 6.4% of the August sales, while 10.5% were hybrid vehicles.

Australia's favourite car brands

The market leader continues to be Toyota, making up 20.3% of all vehicles sold in August and 17% of all sold in Australia so far this year.

Mazda has been next most popular with 8.5% of the total sales volume in the year to date, followed by Ford (6.7%), Kia (6.6%) and Hyundai (6.4%).

Australia continues to import most of its vehicles from Asia, with about 79% of the 788,584 vehicles delivered so far this year manufactured in China, Japan, Korea or Thailand.

Asian manufacturers make up the majority of the top 10 list for sales volume, with only Ford and Tesla sneaking in from elsewhere.

Australia's favourite car models

In July, the biggest seller was the Ford Ranger, but the Hilux, already the biggest seller in the year to date, once more took the crown for August, beating the Ranger by just two extra sales (5762 compared to 5760).

The pair made up nearly half (47.9%) of all the light commercial vehicles sold.

The Toyota RAV4 was next most popular, with 3,317 sold in August, the biggest selling SUV, while the Corolla was the most popular small car, showing Toyota's continued domination of the Australian automobile industry.

At the upper end of the scale, there were 56 Porsche 911s sold, making up 43.1% of the sports cars with a sale price over $200,000, with Ferrari and Lamborghini Coupes/Convertibles the next most popular.