Australia February 2023: Market up 1.8% despite quarantine bottleneck, Ford Ranger threepeats at #1

The Ford Ranger sports a third crown in as many months in Australia.

06/03 update: Now with Top 280 all models ranking.

New vehicle sales in Australia edge up 1.8% year-on-year in February to 86,878 units, leading to a year-to-date tally up 6.5% to 171,751. This is the best February result since 2019. This relatively strong result could have been a lot better were it not for huge bottlenecks at quarantine in Australian ports and at sea. As of 8 February, two-dozen car-carrying ships were waiting to offload an estimated total of 60,000 vehicles as these needed to be treated by biosecurity for seeds and pests. Private sales are down -3.1% to 45,422 units, business sales are up 6.6% to 30,368, sales to rental companies are up 7% to 4,669 and government fleets edge down -0.8% to 2,344.

As for sales by state and territory, New South Wales is up 4.7% to 27,600, Victoria is down -1.3% to 21,894, Queensland down -2.8% to 18,427, Western Australia up a whopping 16.7% to 9,815, South Australia down -4.5% to 5,549, Australian Capital Territory up 7.2% to 1,454, Tasmania off -9.4% to 1,414 and Northern Territory up 2.8% to 725. SUVs are up 6.6% to 47,888 and 55.1% share vs. 52.7% a year ago and 50.8% in February 2021, light commercials sink -13.6% to 18,750 and 21.6% share vs. 25.4% last year and 23% two years ago and passenger cars for once improve 4.8% to 16.435 and 18.9% share vs. 18.4% a year ago and 22.8% in 2021. Petrol is up 2% to 44,528, diesel down -10.8% to 26,443, BEV up 889% to 5,932 (2022 figures excluded Tesla), hybrid down -29.8% to 5,716 and PHEV up 48.9% to 454.

First Top 5 finish for the Mitsubishi Outlander in Australia.

In the brands ranking, Toyota (-31.4%) is hit full frontal by stock shortages and quarantine issues but easily remains on top with 16.5% share. In fact the Top 10 order is unchanged on January, with Mazda (-12.7%) at #2 and Ford (+30.6%), brilliantly lodging the best performance in the Top 10, completing the podium. Kia (+2%) is once again above sister brand Hyundai (-2.6%), and is followed by MG (+15.8%) still gearing up. Subaru (+28.7%) is very solid at #8 while Tesla and Isuzu Ute (+13.3%) round out the Top 10. Below, Volkswagen (+65.9%) catches up on a particularly drab year-ago volume and GWM (+188.4%), Audi (+126.4%), LDV (+48.3%) and Skoda (+52.1%) impress. Newcomer BYD is up to #21.

Model-wise, the Ford Ranger (+29.5%) continues to surf on the success of the new generation and ranks first for the third month in a row. It outsells its archenemy the Toyota Hilux (-18%) and its victory is even more pronounced in the lucrative 4×4 pickup segment at 3,782 vs. 2,877. The Tesla Model 3 repeats at an outstanding third place while the Mazda CX-5 (+105.5%) more than doubles its sales year-on-year to reclaim the SUV crown at #4 overall. This is however partly due to harsh stock constraints for the Toyota RAV4 (-52.5%) down to #6 this month. The Mitsubishi Outlander (+29.5%) is up four spots on last month to #5 which is a new ranking record for the nameplate. The MG ZS (+4.8%) and Isuzu D-Max (+0.1%) follow just as the Subaru Forester (+35.9%) score its first Top 10 finish since January 2022 and the MG 3 (+12.9%) rounds out the Top 10.

Previous month: Australia January 2023: Ford Ranger #1, Tesla Model 3 #3 in market up 11.9% to best January in 5 years

One year ago: First market uptick in 5 months (+1.6%), Mitsubishi Triton, MG ZS and Mazda CX-30 break records

Full February 2023 Top 47 all brands and Top 280 all models below.