Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Toyota Rav4: Australia’s top selling new cars for 2022 revealed
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Australia’s top 10 best-selling cars are revealed, and the list proves we still love big SUVs and diesel-thirsty SUVs.
- Toyota Hi-Lux named Australia’s best-selling new car for the seventh consecutive year
- Across all models, Toyota sold twice as many cars as the next two largest brands
- Top 10 list makes clear Australians still love big ‘thirsty’ vehicles over electric
The 10 best-selling new cars in Australia for 2022 have been revealed and the list is dominated by diesel-thirsty four-wheel-drive utility vehicles.
Toyota’s HiLux was named the top seller in sales data released Thursday in a double win for the Japanese giant, which was also Australia’s most popular brand.
Sales of its various models accounted for a whopping 21.4 percent of all new car sales.
It was the seventh consecutive year that the HiLux ute was the top seller, having dethroned the ultra-reliable and once-untouchable Toyota Corolla in 2016.
Toyota’s HiLux was named the top seller in sales data released Thursday in a double win for the Japanese giant, which was also Australia’s most popular brand.
The American Ford Ranger ute was the second best seller in Australia
By 2022, the HiLux beat out Ford’s second best-selling Ranger ute with another third from Toyota, the RAV4 midsize SUV.
Mitsubishi’s Triton ute was fourth and another midsize SUV, Mazda’s CX-5, fifth.
Toyota’s sales by 2022 outnumbered those of the next two best-selling brands combined. Those were Mazda and Kia.
The figures show that Australia’s love affair with Utes continues and that it is also offsetting growth in EV sales.
Another Toyota was the third biggest seller, the midsize SUV, RAV4
New car sales data confirmed that Australia’s love affair with large vehicles is far from over. Mitsubishi’s Triton was the fourth best-seller in 2022
In August, Tesla’s Model 3 sedan outsold Toyota’s LandCruiser as it made the list of the five best new cars of the month.
But throughout the year a familiar image emerged.
SUVs and light commercial vehicles accounted for 76.8 percent of all sales and comprised eight of the top 10 vehicles.
Four utes make the top 10, while large family SUVs, Toyota Prado and LandCruiser also make the list.
Most of the rest of the top 10 are midsize SUVs.
Battery electric vehicles accounted for just 3.1 percent of sales.
Tony Weber, executive director of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, which published the list, expects large vehicles to dominate the new car market again this year.
“This has been something that has been going on for at least 60 years in Australia,” he said. news.com.au.
“We have always driven big cars by international standards.”
Weber believes that our preference for big cars presents the government with a “real challenge.”
Unlike Europe, Australia does not have mandatory CO2 emissions performance standards for new passenger cars.
Such targets would face resistance from buyers who don’t want to downsize utes and SUVs.
There is only one electric ute for sale in Australia, LDV’s eT60 double cab.
It costs over $90,000 and has limited range and towing capacity.
The other big challenge for ute and SUV lovers is the impending ban on gasoline and diesel vehicles, scheduled for 2035.
The global push to go carbon neutral by 2050 has seen lawmakers, research institutes and even insurance companies call for a ban on new gasoline and diesel vehicles before 2035 can see the end of vehicles altogether.
The sales results also showed Australia’s new car industry has rebounded strongly from a slow start to 2022.
Since August, new car sales have increased more than 15 percent compared to the same period in 2021.