Sales of new motor vehicles in September continued the 2015 trend with growth up 6.8% compared to sales in September 2014.

In total, Australians purchased 101,392 vehicles in September 2015, up 6,414 units compared to the previous September. Year to date new vehicle sales in 2015 now total 862,832, 3.6% higher than for the same period in 2014. Sales in the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria rose compared to September 2015, while sales in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia declined by 13.2%, 3.9% and 8.8% respectively. Amongst the growth states New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria had very strong results with sales increases of 11.8% (3,595), 7.9% (1,497) and 7.8% (2,005) respectively.

The Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, said “the continued growth in the market indicates support for wider data that suggests vehicle affordability is at an all-time high. The phenomenal growth in the sales of SUVs also indicates the trend towards these vehicles has continued.”

Mr Weber noted that sales of small, medium and large SUVs grew by 24.8%, 27.2% and 20% respectively in September 2015 compared to September 2014 and year to date sales were also up 30%, 14.9% and 7.4% respectively. Passenger vehicles were up by 2% in September 2015 compared to the September 2014 sales.

Toyota has maintained the overall market leadership with sales representing 16.4% of the market, followed by Mazda (10.7%), Holden (9.2%), Hyundai (9.2%) and Mitsubishi (6.8%).

Despite the continued strong growth in demand for SUVs the top selling vehicles remain passenger vehicles, with the Hyundai i30 taking the top spot with sales of 4,490, followed by the Mazda 3 (3,588), the Toyota Corolla (3,530), Toyota Camry (2,522) and Ford Ranger (2,471).

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