VFACTS February 2022: Market begins to recover in spite of ongoing delays

Premium European manufacturers struggled again in February’s new-car market, as problems caused by supply issues continued to bite.

While it was another good month for most of the Japanese brands, and Chinese marques such as MG and LDV too, German carmakers like Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen posted tougher results.

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Overall it was the best February since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with 85,340 units registered according to official industry figures released today.

It leaves the market up by 1.6 per cent, or 1363 vehicles, compared with February 2021, but down 1.5 per cent year-to-date.

As expected, New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 26,360 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 22,177 and Queensland on 18,962.

Toyota continued to hold top spot among all the carmakers, followed by Mazda and Mitsubishi rounding out the top three.

Outside the top 10, Honda (down 30 per cent), Skoda (down 49 per cent), Audi (down 37 per cent), Jaguar (down 58 per cent), Land Rover (down 77 per cent) and Volkswagen (down 41 per cent) were the biggest strugglers among mainstream brands.

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In contrast, MG’s sales were up by 25 per cent to make it the seventh most popular car brand in Australia for the second month this year, and light-commercial specialist LDV was up 22 per cent with 1114 sales last month. GWM Haval lost a small amount of sales by six per cent amounting to 1979 registrations.

Successes came for other household names too, with Alfa Romeo (up 81 per cent), Fiat (up 59 per cent), Chevrolet (up 100 per cent), Citroen (up 450 per cent), Peugeot (up 56 per cent), Genesis (up 170 per cent) and Renault (up 249 per cent) all posting large increases in February.

Utes were the country’s most popular vehicle type again last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 16,593 units of a 19,202 total.

Almost 16,000 medium SUVs (15,892 units) left showrooms compared to 14,305 in February 2021. Light SUVs were the only SUV segment to grow significantly with a 23 per cent increase, as the overall SUV share of the market barely changed – growing by just two per cent year-on-year.

Light-commercial vehicles grew its share from 23 to 25 per cent, again at the expense of passenger cars that were down from 23 to 18 per cent of the market.

Small cars and upper large cars lost the most last month, both down around 29 per cent.

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The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said the year-on-year increase over 2021 was a positive sign for the industry despite ongoing setbacks due to stock supply.

“Global supply chains for microprocessor units are still some distance from full recovery, so we are pleased to see this small increase on 2021 figures," said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.

“The consumer demand for new cars in Australia remains strong, and manufacturers are continuing to work hard to get cars into the hands of motorists."

Top 10 models

The Toyota HiLux ute kept the top spot with 4803 sales (8394 YTD) compared to 3455 for regular rival, the Ford Ranger – which fell down to fourth place for the month, but stayed in second year-to-date with 6700.

Sneaking in between was Australia’s most popular SUV, the Toyota RAV4, making a comeback in second with 4454 units registered last month (5879 YTD) after it dropped from the top 10 in January, and fellow ute the Mitsubishi Triton in third with 3811 (6687 YTD).

It was a bad month for the Mazda CX-5 with just 1276 cars shifted, falling out of the top 10 altogether and replaced by its stablemate the Mazda CX-30, which placed eighth with 1819 units. However when looking at the year-to-date results, the CX-5 was present in the top players list with 4478 cars sold, placing sixth.

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After falling out of the top 10 for the first time in December, Toyota’s Corolla was again notably absent in February – narrowly missing out on the last spot to the Mitsubishi Outlander with 1671 sales versus the Mitsi’s 1673. Interestingly, both cars missed out on being chart toppers YTD. It left the Hyundai i30 as the sole flag-waver for small cars which sold 1756 units in February, itself down 21 per cent, though YTD the i30 notched up 3398 sales and was up 18 per cent.

The Corolla’s absence also left the rare sight of just three Toyotas in the top 10, where it regularly has had five entrants in recent months and years. The Japanese brand’s last top 10 model was the Prado 4WD (2778 up 97 per cent), which made several appearances in the chart in 2021, and was fifth both last month (up 97 per cent) and for the year so far (5344 YTD, up 93 per cent).

Notable results don’t stop there for February. MG's compact ZS SUV made a few appearances in the best-sellers list last year, but is continuing its steady climb to the top of the chart, registering in sixth place with 1953 sales, up 50 per cent in Feb and eighth overall with 3541 and up 39 per cent. The MG3 sadly was a one-month-wonder in the top 10, as was the Subaru Forester, which both appeared in January but were nowhere to be seen last month.

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Overall the top 10 models remained largely the same as they were this time in 2021, with the exception of the Mitsubishi ASX, Mazda CX-5 and Toyota Corolla not making the cut, replaced instead by the Mitsubishi Outlander, MG ZS and Mazda CX-30.

Kia’s Cerato, while popular in 2021, was missing again in February, and in fact was outsold last month by its Kia Sportage sibling – registering 1188 sales compared to the Sportage’s 1296, and 2396 versus 2406 year-to-date.

Top 10 models: February 2022

Top 10 models: YTD 2022

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Top 10 brands

Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz were the two biggest absentees from February’s list of most popular manufacturers.

VW’s Amarok ute was down 50 per cent in its run-out year ahead of a new-generation model being revealed later in 2022, with the Polo city car and T-Cross SUV were also down – 36 per cent and 38 per cent respectively, though the latter actually turned out to be the marque’s best-selling vehicle this month with 352 sales.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz had a tough month too with just 1245 sales, falling out of the top 10 after placing tenth in January and eighth this time last year, replaced by Nissan with 2820 units shifted even though the Japanese brand’s numbers were down 26 per cent year-on-year.

Year-to-date it was a similar picture, with Merc posting 4038 sales versus Nissan’s 5154. Its GLB-class model was its best-seller (320 units, up 13 per cent), followed by the GLE wagon (151, down 43 per cent), GLC wagon (118, down 68 per cent) and C-Class sedan (103, down 70 per cent).

Explaining the dip, a spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz told Wheels: “Our order intake is currently outstripping supply, as the volume of Mercedes-Benz vehicles arriving in Australia continues to be affected by ongoing semiconductor shortages.

“On top of this, delays in logistics have held up hundreds of vehicles from customer delivery. New Mercedes-Benz vehicles are currently caught in a bottleneck of port congestion and quarantine inspections at the border, and a number of vessels transporting our cars have been delayed.

“We thank our customers for their patience and encourage them to contact their local Mercedes-Benz agent for the most up-to-date information on their vehicle arrival.”

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February was a slightly better month for the market’s dominant brand Toyota with 20,886, up 14 per cent compared to this time last year when it had 18,375, while in January it suffered a nine per cent loss versus Jan 2021, mostly down to COVID-19 related production problems. Year-to-date it has notched up 36,219 units.

MG equalled its seventh position with 3767 registrations, despite just the ZS appearing in the top 10 vehicles list and contributing to rise of 25 per cent. For the year so far the Chinese brand has sold 7305 cars, also keeping it in seventh place overall.

Mitsubishi secured third spot with a healthy 7813 sales and up 26 per cent, while Mazda and Isuzu both registered six and 11 per cent increases respectively over February 2021. For 2022 so far the two companies have shifted 14,346 units and 18,587.

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Kia last year threatened to overtake its affiliate company Hyundai before its challenge faded away. Unlike in February 2021, it came out on top last month with 5881 units sold compared to Hyundai’s 5649. Year-to-date it’s the same story – Kia outranking its sister company 11,401 versus 10,777.

Ford and Subaru remained solid with 4610 and 3151 sales, holding their ground in sixth and eighth places, as was the case in January and also year-to-date – while 12 months ago Ford was also in sixth, but Subaru didn’t make the top 10. For February, Ford was down two per cent year-on-year, while Subaru gained 19 per cent. Year-to-date both brands are sitting on 9138 and 5873 registrations respectively.

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Top 10 brands: February 2022

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Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

In charts

February 2022 - Top 10 models

February - Top 10 brands

February 2022 - Overall segment sales

February 2022-2021 category sales

February 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race