Australia’s Automobile Sales Results in 2022

Australia’s automobile sales increased by 3.0% year-on-year in 2022 to 1.08 million units. However, due to soaring prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war and a series of interest rate hikes, consumers tend to refrain from purchasing expensive items. As a result, it is difficult to tell whether sales will continue to grow in 2023.

Sales of passenger cars (excluding SUVs) decreased 8.4% year-on-year to 203,056 units. In contrast, SUVs increased 8.1% to 574,632 units, light commercial vehicles went up 1.2% to 256,382 units, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles rose by 9.3% to 47,359 units, surpassing the previous year's results. The market share of SUVs expanded from 35.4% in 2015 to 53.1% in 2022. Based on the product strategies of OEMs, it is expected that the share of SUVs in the Australian market will continue to grow for the time being.