AUSTRALIA’S love affair with the ute could also be one other nail within the coffin for the passenger automobile section because the burgeoning light-commercial automobile section begins to shut in on the flagging gross sales of the standard automobile market.
The rise of the LCVs comes lower than two years after SUVs leap-frogged passenger automobile numbers.
VFacts information for the 2020 calendar 12 months reveals SUVs have a 49.6 per cent share of the Australian automobile market, greater than double that of passenger vehicles with 24.2 per cent.
Now the shock is the rise of LCVs, primarily based predominantly on the dominant ute gross sales however enhanced by rising workhorse gross sales after the federal authorities final 12 months launched a full tax write-off for belongings after which introduced it might be repeated within the present monetary 12 months.
Within the 2020 calendar 12 months, LCVs ended with 205,597 gross sales, down 8.9 per cent on the earlier 12 months, however its share of the automobile market rose to 22.4 per cent, up from 21.2 per cent in 2019.
On the similar time, passenger automobile gross sales have been 222,103 models – solely 16,506 greater than LCVs – and had a 24.2 per cent stake within the automobile market, down from 29.7 per cent in 2019. The automobile sector additionally had a whopping 29.7 per cent plunge in gross sales in contrast with 2019.
SUVs, in the meantime, had the lion’s share of the spoils with 454,701 gross sales and a 49.6 per cent stake, up from the earlier 12 months’s 45.5 per cent share. Its gross sales have been down a relatively modest 5.9 per cent in a complete market that fell 13.7 per cent.
Heading the listing as Australia’s hottest automobile for 2020 is the Toyota HiLux with 45,176 gross sales, considerably larger than the most well-liked passenger automobile for 2020, the Toyota Corolla, with 25,882 gross sales.
The dominance of the ute market is mirrored by the very fact the 2020 gross sales of all the light-car section of 20 fashions was solely 1633 models lower than the gross sales of the Ford Ranger 4×4 (37,889) for a similar 12 months.
Or that the 27 fashions that make up the medium automobile section posted gross sales in 2020 of 32,842 which was 1924 automobiles lower than Toyota Hilux 4×4 gross sales.
Even the Toyota Hilux 4×2 work ute vary sells practically as many as 2020’s whole 49-model sportscar market, with the ute discovering 10,410 patrons whereas 10,677 folks took supply of a brand new sportscar.
The tax incentive to purchase a brand new work automobile throughout 2020 boosted LCV gross sales across the center of the 12 months however apart from the heavier-duty vans (within the 2.5-3.5-tonne GVM vary), gross sales weren’t as excessive as 2019.
LCV recognition can extra be levelled at declining curiosity within the passenger-car section.
Nonetheless, the work place tax incentive did elevate gross sales of the bigger vans to 21,213 gross sales in 2020, up from 18,260 in 2019. The preferred was the Toyota HiAce with 39.6 per cent of the section (8391 gross sales) with the Hyundai iLoad second at 3919 gross sales for an 18.5 per cent share.
The iLoad’s stake fell from the earlier 12 months’s 21.5 per cent, primarily on the energy of the brand new HiAce. The HiAce additionally scored dominance within the mild bus section, controlling 90.7 per cent of the section with 2027 gross sales and utterly outclassing the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in second place with its 106 gross sales or a 4.7 per cent section share.
The Sprinter did, nonetheless, take some wind out of the HiAce after lifting its share in 2020 from 2.9 per cent in 2019, whereas the HiAce slipped from its 2019 share of 92.8 per cent.
The sunshine van (lower than 2.5-tonne GVM and mainly the city supply enterprise) section was received by the Volkswagen Caddy with a 71.9 per cent share (1749 gross sales), up from 62.7 per cent within the earlier 12 months on the retirement of the Citroen Berlingo.
The subsequent best-selling mild van was the Renault Kangoo with 458 gross sales and an 18.0 per cent share, down from 28.4 per cent in 2019. The rise of the Caddy within the section is predicted to proceed into 2021 and 2022 with the arrival of the next-generation Caddy 5 primarily based on the Golf platform.
Whereas a lot of the ute consideration is on the 4×4 automobiles, the extra workhorse-oriented and urban-focused 4×2 automobiles stay sturdy with 26,640 gross sales in 2020. Although down on 2019 (32,783 gross sales), it parallels the actions of the 4×4 fashions.
No shock that the Toyota Hilux additionally dominates the rear-drive ute cluster, with 39.1 per cent of the market (10,410 gross sales) adopted by the Isuzu D-Max with a 16.3 per cent (4343 gross sales) share, up from 15.6 per cent in 2019 on the introduction of the new-gen mannequin.