Australia April 2023: Ford Ranger reclaims lead, Tesla, Nissan, VW impress

The Ford Ranger is the best-selling vehicle in Australia so far in 2023.

5/05 update: Now with Top 280 All models ranking

The Australian new vehicle market continues to be plagued by shipping bottlenecks due to biosecurity issues on car-carrying ships, but also ballooning delivery delays reaching 3 to 4 years for popular models such as the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Despite this, sales manage to eke out a small year-on-year gain in April at +1.3% to 82,137. We however remain 11% below the record for the month set in April 2021. So far this year, 351,139 new vehicles found a buyer, up 2.2% on the same period in 2022. Private sales edge up 1% to 43,674 units, business fleets are up 2.9% to 27,950, sales to rental companies skid -11.4% to 4,409 and government sales lift 8.1% to 2,249. SUVs soar 8.6% year-on-year to 46,031 sales and 56% share vs. 52.3% a year ago, Light Commercials fall -13.1% to 17,060 and 20.8% share vs. 24.2% in April 2022 and Passenger Cars sport a measured fall for once at -1.6% to 15,191 and 18.5% share vs. 19.1% last year.

The evolution of sales by state/territory shows four in positive and four in negative year-on-year. Western Australia is up 5.2% to 8,303, the Australian Capital Territory up 5% to 1,261, Queensland up 4.4% to 18,188 and Victoria up 4.2% to 22,226 units. In contrast New South Wales is down -1.5% to 25,040, South Australia down -6.8% to 5,087, Northern Territory down -10.3% to 761 and Tasmania down -13.3% to 1,271. Petrol sales are up 1.1% to 42,369, diesel is down -16.6% to 23,246, BEV surge 654% to 6,530, outpacing Hybrid (-9.6% to 5,592) for the first time while PHEV are down -13.4% to 545. Looking at country of production, Japan is off -8.4% to 22,304, Thailand down -17.6% to 15,886, China confirms it is the new #3 with sales up 62.1% to 13,426 ahead of South Korea up 6.7% to 12,952 and Germany up 37.4% to 4,039.

Toyota (-33%) is once again battered by supply issues and delivers a very low 14.6% share (it is normally around 20% to 25%), albeit better than the 13.6% hit last month. Mazda (-6.1%) is also hit in 2nd place with 8.4% share vs. 9.2% year-to-date. Kia (+0.3%) edges up to score its first podium finish since last October with Hyundai (+3.2%) in tow at #4. Ford (+1.5%) is also marginally up but drops two spots on March to #5. Mitsubishi (-31.3%) takes a heavy blow at #6 whereas Tesla (+6969.2%!) confirms its previously backloaded volumes to end-of-quarter months is a thing of the past, at least in Australia. The American manufacturer equals its ranking record at #7. MG (-27.4%) endures its first decline since July 2022 but stays at #8 and ranks #7 year-to-date as it did over the Full Year 2022. Nissan (+46.8%) and Volkswagen (+71.8%) complete the Top 10 in spectacular fashion. Below, Lexus (+130.8%), GWM (+63.8%) and Subaru (+52.7%) shine while BYD is up two spots to #19 and Chery makes its comeback in Australia at #28.

Over in the models aisle, the Ford Ranger (-0.4%) reclaims the top spot for the third time this year, just 41 sales above the Toyota Hilux (-21.5%). The Ranger remains the leader year-to-date with almost 17,300 sales (+30.6%) vs. just under 16,200 for the Hilux (-15.8%). Looking at the lucrative 4×4 pickup segment in isolation, the Ranger also dominates with 3,152 sales vs. 2,817 for the Hilux, and scores 15,061 sales year-to-date vs. just 12,218 for the Toyota. Despite mind boggling delivery delays for its Hybrid variant, the Toyota RAV4 (-34.8%) manages to climb back into third place and snaps the YTD lead in the SUV charts also. The Tesla Model Y is up one rank on last month to an exceptional 4th place with the Hyundai i30 (-2%) jumping up 8 spots on March to #5. The Mitsubishi Outlander (+68.4%) and Hyundai Tucson (+90.2%) both post very strong upticks while the Tesla Model 3 (+2940.4%) manages a surreal gain to slip into the Top 10 at #10.

Previous month: Australia March 2023: Isuzu Ute breaks all records, places D-Max at #3 and MU-X at #10, registrations off -2.7%

One year ago: Australia April 2022: MG breaks records again, places all three models inside Top 20 for 1st time, sales down -12.2%

Full April 2023 Top 50 All brands and Top 280 All models below.