Industry Sales Results
Industry Sales Results

VFACTS: February 2018 new vehicle sales

Horror month for Holden, Honda on the charge


The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) is reporting a 7.8 per cent year-on-year increase in sales and registrations for February.

VFACTS data released today reveals 95,999 cars were sold in the shortest month of the year, compared to 89,025 for the same period last year. Sales for 2018 are sitting on 184,550 – up 10,615 sales or 6.1 per cent on the same time in 2017.

As is now standard form, SUVs dominated with 41.5 per cent of the market, followed by passenger cars – hatches, sedans, wagons, people-movers, coupes and convertibles – with 35.9 per cent market share, or 34,490 sales. In spite of the overall market growth, 250 more passenger cars found a home in February last year.

Vans and utes accounted for 19.5 per cent of the market with 18,707 sales, 2195 more than we saw in February last year.


Top brands February 2018 

In news that will shock no-one, Toyota held top spot with a 19.0 per cent market share. It sold 18,281 cars in February, up 1973 cars or 12.1 per cent on last year.

Mazda finished the month in second place, selling 9913 cars for a 10.3 per cent share – 10 fewer cars than the same period last year, and a 0.8 per cent smaller share of the sales pie.

Hyundai took the bottom step on the podium with an 8.3 per cent market share, on the back of 8001 sales. That's a 1000-car improvement on the same month in 2017, and 0.4 per cent more market share than the Korean brand held last year.

Mitsubishi (7142, up 24 per cent), Ford (6059, up 6.9 per cent), Honda (4962), up a whopping 55.3 per cent), Nissan (4863, up 9.9 per cent), Holden (4689, down 18.1 per cent), Kia (4664, up 11.7 per cent) and Volkswagen (4620, up 1.1 per cent) rounded out the top 10.

February was a good month for Isuzu Ute (1822, up 37.4 per cent), Alfa Romeo (77, up 45.3 per cent), LDV (385, up 126.5 per cent), Mini (346, up 24.5 per cent) and Peugeot (210, up 17.3 per cent) – along with Mitsubishi and Honda, as mentioned earlier.

On the other side of the coin, Infiniti's horror year continued (28, down 76.5 per cent). Jaguar (139, down 44 per cent) and Land Rover (973, down 23.8 per cent) both battled, as did Citroen (28, down 39.1 per cent) and Fiat (95, down 36.7 per cent).

As mentioned before, Holden dropped by 18.1 per cent, while Mercedes-Benz shifted 2764 cars for February, down 9.6 per cent on the same time last year.


Top models February 2018 

Although the Toyota HiLux (4426) and Ford Ranger (3544) remained top sellers for February, the Corolla (3270) outsold the Mazda 3 (2935).

Unlike last month, the Toyota Camry snuck into the top 20 with 1381 sales, tied with the Honda CR-V. The Holden Commodore, on the other hand, remained outside with just 737 – 134 fewer than last month.

Of the 20 most popular cars in the country, eight were passenger cars, eight were SUVs and four were utes.


Winners by segment 

Micro cars

Light cars

Small cars 

Medium cars

Large cars

People movers 

Sports cars 

Small SUV

Medium SUV 

Large SUV 

Upper Large SUV

Vans

Utes


Miscellaneous data

  • State/territory split: New South Wales 31,252, Victoria 28,451, Queensland 18,516, Western Australia 8276, South Australia 5665, Australian Capital Territory 1578, Tasmania 1491 and Northern Territory 770.
  • Top five segments by share: Small cars 19.3 per cent, Medium SUV 17.8 per cent, 4x4 Utes 14.0 per cent, Large SUV 11.4 per cent, Small SUV 10.8 per cent.
  • Fastest-growing segments: SUV small (21.4 per cent), 4x4 utes (17.9 per cent), SUV medium (17.1 per cent), SUV upper large (12.9 per cent) and light car (10.3 per cent)
  • Fastest-shrinking segments: Large cars (down 45.9 per cent), Sports cars (down 25.4 per cent), Micro cars (down 21.2 per cent), Upper large cars (down 15.9 per cent) and Vans 2.5-3.5t (down 5.1 per cent).
  • Buyer-type split: Private 45,720, Business 39,597, Rental 4737 and Government 2943.
  • Fuel split: Petrol 61,963, Diesel 29,979, Hybrid 951, Electric – excluding Tesla, which refuses to share information – 104.
  • Top five origin countries: Japan 29,229, Thailand 25,675, Korea 14,181, Germany 7636 and USA 3853.

MORE: Industry sales results

Any questions? Fire away in the comments, and we'll answer them as soon as possible.

NOTE: Mike Costello, on assignment this week in Geneva, will resume VFACTS coverage in April. 

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