VFACTS January 2023: Ford Ranger tops new-car sales, Tesla Model 3 third

Demand for new cars in Australia remains strong – despite chronic stock shortages, economic uncertainty, high inflation, and rising interest rates – official sales figures released today show.

However, many new motor vehicles reported as sold in January 2023 were ordered last year – and were delivered en-masse as large shipments arrived.

Data shows 84,873 new motor vehicles were reported as sold last month – an increase of 11.9 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The January 2023 new-car sales result was 0.6 per cent up compared to the five-year average (84,389) from 2015 to 2019 prior to the pandemic, and 4.2 per cent down compared to the January record of 88,551 set in 2018.

The Ford Ranger ute topped the January 2023 sales charts – ahead of the Toyota HiLux ute, a month after it notched up its seventh annual win in a row.

Toyota remained the top-selling car brand, ahead of Mazda in second, and Ford in third – only the Blue Oval's sixth Top Three finish in a decade.

Other highlights to come from the January 2023 new-car sales data: Kia continued to outsell its South Korean sibling Hyundai last month – after overtaking its in-house rival last calendar year for the first time since both brands were established in Australia in the 1990s.

After topping the electric-car sales charts – and ending the Toyota Camry's 28-year winning streak last year – Tesla reported 3313 vehicles as sold and ranked ninth outright as a brand in January 2023.

The Tesla Model 3 placed third outright for the first time on record, and was the nation's most popular passenger car for the month, with 2927 deliveries.

Placing a surprise fourth was the Mazda CX-3 city SUV, which ranked as the best-selling SUV for the month.

The Toyota RAV4 – which was Australia's third best-selling new vehicle outright last year, top-selling SUV, top-selling hybrid, and top-selling passenger car – slipped to sixth on the sales charts in January 2023 amid long wait times and shipping delays.

Waiting times across most new cars remains three to nine months, though some models – such as the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and Toyota Camry Hybrid – have delivery delays of up to two years.

The January 2023 new-car sales result appears to show a lag between demand for new motor vehicles compared to fading consumer confidence across other sectors.

Sean Hanley, the sales and marketing boss of Toyota Australia – which accounts for one-in-five new cars sold – says demand for new cars has tapered from the extreme peaks during the pandemic, when Australians treated themselves to a new car in lieu of an overseas holiday. However customer orders still remain strong.

"We are still seeing strong demand," said Mr Hanley. "It's not as crazy as it was during the peak (of COVID) but demand has what I would describe as normalised.

"You've got to remember, pre-COVID demand was very strong, so to say demand has eased or has normalised back to those levels does not mean the industry is about to go backwards.

"We still have strong order banks and people are still enquiring about new cars and placing orders for new cars, even though they know there could be in some cases an 18-month to two-year wait."

As reported previously, sales figures for last year showed 1,081,429 new motor vehicles were reported as sold in 2022, an increase of 3.0 per cent compared the prior year – but 9.0 per cent less than the record of 1,189,116 set in 2017 and 5.8 per cent less than the five-year average prior to the pandemic.

It was the 14th time in the past 16 years Australians purchased more than ome million new cars in a calendar year.

Data below supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), and compiled by Alex Misoyannis and Ben Zachariah.

Note: The FCAI has reshuffled some of its categories for the new year, increasing the price limits, adding a new category (utes above $100,000), and moving some vehicles to different categories as their prices have risen (such as the Volkswagen Golf and Subaru WRX, which were previously in the small car under $40,000 category).