June 2012 was the best ever month on record for vehicle sales, according to the official VFACTS data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).
June is consistently the best performing month for sales (nine of the top 10 sales months), with the previous record set in June 2010 when 108,722 vehicles were sold.
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Overall, 112,566 vehicles (cars, SUVs, light commercials and trucks) were sold in June 2012, an increase of 17.1% (or 16,409 vehicles) compared to June 2011. On a year to date basis, this is a 10.4% increase (51,618 vehicles) on sales for the first six months in 2011. Overall, 547,854 vehicles have been sold since the beginning of 2012.
June sales increased in every state and territory except Tasmania, compared with the previous June.
Petrol driven cars continue to dominate private passenger vehicle sales, representing over 92% of the 162,676 vehicles sold in this segment in the first half of 2012. Diesel driven private passenger cars represent 6.5% of sales in this segment, up 1.4% for the year to 10,404 units. Sales of hybrid private passenger vehicles are up 84% (from 1,060 to 1,950 units), compared with this time last year, representing just over 1% of private passenger vehicle sales.
In the sports utility vehicle (SUV) private sales segment over the same period, diesel driven vehicles have just over 35% of the market and sales are up by over 62% compared to the first six months of 2011. Overall, sales of SUVs are up 33.4% compared to the same period in 2011.
Sales of electric, LPG and hybrid vehicles remain relatively low in absolute numbers, but growth is evident – LPG powered passenger vehicles for example are up from 680 sales at this time in 2011 to over 1,700 in 2012.
Sales of locally manufactured vehicles are strong, with nearly 70,000 sold for the year to date, up from just over 63,000 this time last year.
For the third month in a row, the popular Mazda 3 (3,924) was outsold by the Toyota HiLux with 4,308 sales. A number of other vehicles sold in excess of 3,000 units for the month, including the Toyota Corolla (3,804), Holden Cruze (3,057), Nissan Navara (3,034) and Hyundai i30 (3,024).
Toyota was the best performing brand overall in June selling 21,649 vehicles, followed by Holden with 10,632 and Mazda with 9,593.
