Winners And Losers in 2010

January 19th, 2011

The Federal Chamber Of Automotive Industries (FCAI) have just released figures and data on sales of motor vehicles in 2010 – and they make interesting reading, even to the layman.

Million Barrier Broken

2010 showed an increase of 10.5% on 2009 and posted the second highest sales on record at 1.03 million passenger cars, SUV’s and commercial vehicles for the year. That’s nearly 100,000 more new vehicles than the year before. There were, of course, plenty of winners, but, rather surprisingly, there were also some very big losers.

The Big Winners

Toyota was the biggest selling brand in 2010 for the eighth year running, selling 214,000 vehicles, some 77,000 more than the runner-up Holden, with Ford a distant third. However there were some significant and unexpected changes.

SUV’s

A massive 25% more Sports Utility Vehicles were sold in 2010, reflecting the continued interest in 4WD and off-road type vehicles. By contrast normal passenger vehicles could only manage a more modest 9.5% increase.

Luxury Vehicles

As a clear reflection of the GFC recovery Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Bentley all recorded increased sales in excess of 50% over 2009 (Rolls Royce, incidentally, recorded a huge 179% increase).

The Imports

The best overall performer was Great Wall from China, but that’s because it was working from a very low base in 2009. Even so, it is a sign of things to come with nearly 5000 vehicles sold in 2010, and other Chinese imports set to join the assault in 2011.

Hyundai (+27%), Nissan (+18.5%), Suzuki (+22%) and Skoda (+32%) also performed well.

There were many other imports who could boast good increases but amongst these most notably Volkswagen scored a 26% increase to be the only European amongst the top ten brands.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic from the importers was the source country with the biggest growth was India! India had a massive 680% increase with more than 6000 vehicles landing on our shores in 2010.

India?? What cars do we buy that are made in India? Well, if you buy a Hyundai i20 you’ll most likely find it was made in India (if you want to check how to find where your car comes from click here).

……. And the Losers

Not surprisingly the biggest loser was SAAB, due to the threatened closure, but then, with new cars due it will probably recover to be the most successful performer in 2011! Amongst the bigger brands Chrysler (-20%), Dodge (-21%), Fiat (-29%) and Renault (-21%) suffered, and Ford would not have been happy either, as they fell back by 1.3% in comparison with Holden’s 11.2% growth.

Just to show you how careful you have to be when reading figures the biggest loser was Maybach (-100%). Who? Maybach is the Mercedes luxury brand (?). It sold one vehicle in 2009, but none in 2010. You can look for the Arnie Shwarzenneger Hummer on the same scrapheap (-87%) with only 55 sold prior to their demise.

……and finally, the best performers.

Light Cars under $25K