Australian new vehicle sales fell 7.8% year on year in 2019 to 1,062,86, the lowest tally since 2011.
December sales fell 3.8% to 84,239.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
FCAI CEO Tony Weber said "2019 reflects a tough year for the Australian economy, with challenges including tightening of lending, movements in exchange rates, slow wages growth and, of course, the extreme environmental factors [bush fires] our country is experiencing".
He noted 2019 saw a further shift to SUVs which now hold 45.5% of the total market, a 2.5 percentage point increase from 2018.
Light commercials' share grew 0.6 percentage points to 21.2% of the market while passenger vehicles' slice decreased 3.1 percentage points to 29.7%.
Though holding the largest share of market, SUV sales declined in full year 2019 by 2.4%, sales of passenger vehicles fell 16.5% and sales of light commercial vehicles declined 5.2%.
The Toyota HiLux was again top selling vehicle in 2019 with 47,649 sales. The HiLux was followed by the Ford Ranger, again number two with 40,960 sales, followed by the Toyota Corolla (30,468), the Hyundai i30 (28,378) and the Mitsubishi Triton (25,819).
Across the brands, Toyota led in 2019 with a 19.4% market share, followed by Mazda (9.2%), Hyundai (8.1%), Mitsubishi (7.8%) and Ford (6.0%).
