New vehicle sales have continued downhill for the fourth month consecutively, as the industry continues to face semiconductor shortages, reduced production levels and shipping misadventures.
A total of 75,863 new vehicles were sold in January 2022, a 4.8 per cent reduction on January 2021 figures.
Federal Chamber of Automotive industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said,
“The microprocessor shortage and the pandemic’s impact on supply chains continues into 2022. This is an issue impacting markets all over the globe. Despite this, consumer interest, inquiry, and the fundamental demand for new cars in Australia remains strong,”
“We are also experiencing bottlenecks in having vehicles processed from some Australian ports”
There has been a spike in ute and van sales (light commercial segment making up 24.1 per cent of total vehicle sales last month) driven by the construction boom, an increase in buyers looking for more suitable holidaying vehicles and van sales boosted by the increase of parcel deliveries.
When reviewing by state, sales in New South Wales plummeted by 9.8 per cent with 23,035 vehicles sold. Victoria fell 1.6 per cent with 20,397. Queensland dropped 1.3 per cent with 16,423. Western Australia diminished by 7.8 per cent with 7,578. South Australia declined 2.2 per cent with 5,170. The Australian Capital Territory was down 9.7 per cent with 1,175, Northern Territory was greatly down 13 per cent with 617.
Compared, Tasmania was the only state to improve its figures with 15.4 per cent, 1,468 vehicles sold. Automotive analysts say the Tasmanian sales figures are likely to be sustained by growth in rental car deliveries as the tourism industry prepares for the return of frequent travel to the state.
Sales of EVs have more than doubled (up 109.8 per cent from 296 in January 2021 to 620 in January 2022) excluding Tesla.
No surprise Toyota was the market leader in January 2022 with 15,333 vehicles sold. Mazda trailed with 9,805. Mitsubishi took third place with 6,533. Fourth was taken by Kia with 5,520 and Hyundai came in fifth with 5,128.
Top 10 CARS in January 2022
| Rank | Model | Volume January 2022 | Change year-on-year |
| 1 | Toyota HiLux | 3591 | down 8.2 per cent |
| 2 | Ford Ranger | 3245 | up 4.0 per cent |
| 3 | Mazda CX-5 | 3213 | up 54.4 per cent |
| 4 | Mitsubishi Triton | 2876 | up 50.7 per cent |
| 5 | Toyota Prado | 2566 | up 88.8 per cent |
| 6 | Isuzu D-Max | 1895 | up 4.0 per cent |
| 7 | Hyundai i30 | 1642 | down 15.9 per cent |
| 8 | MG ZS | 1588 | up 26.7 per cent |
| 9 | MG 3 | 1551 | up 80.6 per cent |
| 10 | Subaru Forrester | 1480 | up 20.2 per cent |
Top 10 CAR BRANDS in January 2022
| Rank | Brand | Volume January 2022 | Change year-on-year |
| 1 | Toyota | 15 | down 8.8 per cent |
| 2 | Mazda | 9805 | up 15.2 per cent |
| 3 | Mitsubishi | 6533 | up 26.1 per cent |
| 4 | Kia | 5520 | up 0.4 per cent |
| 5 | Hyundai | 5128 | down 13.8 per cent |
| 6 | Ford | 4528 | down 11.2 per cent |
| 7 | MG | 3538 | up 46.3 per cent |
| 8 | Subaru | 2722 | down 15.5 per cent |
| 9 | Isuzu | 2715 | up 14.9 per cent |
| 10 | Nissan | 2334 | down 37.9 per cent |
