Australia Full Year 2021: Toyota Hilux challenged by Ford Ranger, MG and ZS in Top 10, market up 14.5%

The Toyota Hilux is the best-selling vehicle in Australia for the 6th year in a row.

Discover 75 years worth of Australian Historical Data here.

10/01 update: Now with All-models rankings.

29/03 update: Now with official Tesla figures and Top 10 BEV and PHEV models.

The Australian new vehicle market is up 15.4% year-on-year in 2021 to 1,061,975 units despite the last three months being in negative due to stock shortages triggered by the microchip crisis. December is down -17.6% to 78,402 units, the lowest for the month since 2008. Excluding last year’s COVID-gripped figure, the annual figure is the lowest since 2014. SUVs cross the symbolic 50% share mark for the first time this year at 50.6% thanks to 531,700 sales, while Light Commercials overtake Passenger Cars for the first time at 253,254 sales and 24.1% share vs. 221,556 and 21.1%. Heavy commercials hold 4.1% thanks to 43,231 units. A very encouraging sign, private sales soar 21% year-on-year in 2021 to 539,242 units whereas business fleets only edge up 1.9% to 378,506. Rentals are up 73.7% on a devastated 2020 volume at 60,242 and government fleets drop -7.5% to 28,520.

Looking at sales by State and territory, New South Wales is up 8.6% to 328,185, Victoria up 20.4% to 272,733, Queensland up 17.4% to 229,775, Western Australia up 18.7% to 106,134, South Australia up 14.2% to 68,605, Tasmania up 18.4% to 18,564, ACT down -18.7% to 16,002 and Northern Territory up 27.2% to 9,833. The big story when looking at sales by country of origin is the leap of China. Japan still holds the lead with 350,934 units (+13.4%), followed by Thailand at 230,520 (+8%) and South Korea at 145,025 (+17.2%). China is now in 4th place vs. 6th last year with 76,262 sales, up a whopping 148.2%. It now distances Germany at 43,143 (-26.3%) and the U.S. at 34,958 (+3.6%).

In the brands ranking, Toyota (+9.2%) retains the crown for the 19th consecutive year and the 25th year in total. It has been #1 from 1991 to 1994, in 1998, 2000 and every year since 2003. Toyota has also been the best-selling brand in the Light Commercial segment uninterrupted since 1979 or 43 years in a row. Mazda (+18.1%) improves its share to 9.5% to cement its 2nd place ahead of Hyundai (+12.4%) and Ford (+19.8%) meaning the Top 4 is unchanged on 2020. Kia (+21.2%) overtakes Mitsubishi (+16.1%) to land at a record 5th place, with the two brands outpacing the market and distancing Nissan (+7.7%) and Volkswagen (+3.8%) both underperforming. The best performance atop the charts is without contest delivered by Chinese fare MG (+155.9%) more than doubling its sales to break into the Top 10 at #9. It hit a record 7th place in both November and December. Subaru (+17.5%) rounds out the Top 10 above a very dynamic Isuzu Ute (+61.6%). Below, GWM/Haval soars 251.2% to #14, LDV is up 62.9% to #18, Tesla up 310.3% to #19, Skoda up 39% to #20, Jeep up 35% to #22, Chevrolet up 5783.3% to #30 and Genesis up 220.5% to 734.

Over in the models ranking, the Toyota Hilux (+16.9%) remains the overall best-seller for the 6th consecutive year, hitting record volume and market share at just under 53,000 sales and 5%. The Hilux was however challenged this year by the Ford Ranger (+22.7%) also hitting record volume and share at over 50,000 units and 4.7%. The Ranger managed to hold the monthly top spot no less than 6 times this year: in April, June and from September to December, whereas it had only ranked #1 twice before this year: in September 2017 and September 2020. This is all the more impressive that it occurs in the current generation’s last year. The all-new 2022 model may be able to lift the Ranger to #1 annually next year. Note the Ranger easily tops the 4×4 pickup segment with 45,986 sales vs. 39,587 for the Hilux.

The Toyota RAV4 (-7.2%) is the best-selling SUV in the country for the 2nd year running but sees its sales drop due to stock availability. The Hybrid variant we took on a 11.000 km tour in 2019 represents 75% of sales despite a current wait list of 12 months. The Passenger Car is not dead: the Toyota Corolla (+11.2%) manages to increase its volume year-on-year to remain #1 in the category at #4 overall ahead of the Hyundai i30 (+23.3%) at #5. The Isuzu D-Max is boosted 66.8% and 6 spots to #6 and new record volume, share and ranking, marking its first time inside the Australian Top 10 thanks to the new generation. The Mazda CX-5 (+13.6%) drops two spots to #7 ahead of the Toyota Prado (+18.1%) breaking its volume and share record and equalling its ranking record at #8. The MG ZS (+235.3%) surges from #47 to a maiden spot inside the Top 10 at #10. The Tesla Model 3 is up 308.6% to #19.

Previous month: Australia November 2021: Lowest November in 13 years (-15.3%), MG up to #7, Ford Ranger 3peats at #1

Previous year: Australia 2020: Toyota Hilux #1 for 5th year, RAV4 up to #3, Holden out in weakest market in 17 years (-13.7%)

Two years ago: Australia 2019: Kia only island of growth, Hilux #1 for 4th straight year in weakest market since 2011

Full December 2021 Top 42 All-brands and Top 270 All-models below.

Full Year 2021 Top 50 All-brands and Top 335 models vs. Full Year 2020 figures below.

Full Year 2021 Top 10 BEV and PHEV models below.