2022's sales winners! Why it was a great year for MG, Kia, GWM Tesla and Volvo

The numbers have been tallied and the results are in at the conclusion of the 2022 new car sales race. And the biggest winner is… Toyota - who else?

Of course the Japanese brand continues to lead the way, and not by a little either. Toyota sold 231,050 new vehicles in 2022, while second-placed Mazda managed 95,718 - that’s a difference of more than 135,000 vehicles. Or, to put it another way, Toyota sold more cars than Mazda and third placed Kia combined, and even then they were nearly 60,000 sales short.

But who else had a memorable year for the right reasons in 2022? We’ve analysed the sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and come up with the other ‘big winners’ from last year.

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Kia - sales up 15.3%

The new Sportage was up 136.4 per cent.

It wasn’t long ago that Kia was a brand that sold strictly on value, with customers veering away from it out of concerns over quality or just straight-up badge snobbery. In 2022 Kia became the best-selling South Korean brand in this country, blowing past stablemate/parent brand, Hyundai to finish third on the sales chart, behind only Toyota and Mazda.

The 15.3 per cent sales growth was largely off the back of its burgeoning SUV line-up, with the new Sportage (up 136.4%) and Niro (115.9%), along with the large Sorento (up 53.9%) and compact Stonic (up 11.9%) all proving popular.

The addition of the EV6 gave the brand a new hero model and electric flagship, which sets it up nicely for continued success in 2023 and beyond.

MG - sales up 27.1%

The HS recorded 10,948 sales in 2022.

It was another impressive sales year for the Chinese brand despite it still only having a three-pronged line-up - the ZS and HS SUVs and the MG3 city car. While there were some question marks hanging over the brand given the limits of its line-up, all three models experienced double-digit growth in ‘22.

The HS, which competes against the likes of the big-hitting Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5, was the biggest improver, growing more than 60 per cent and recording 10,948 sales. That still puts it well behind the likes of the Toyota and Mazda but ahead of bigger names, including the Subaru Forester, Nissan X-Trail and Honda CR-V.

The updated ZS, meanwhile, remains Australia’s favourite Small SUV according to the sales data. MG found 22,466 customers, putting it well-ahead of the next best-selling Mazda CX-30 (13,891) and Mitsubishi ASX (12,753).

GWM - up 36.2%

The GWM Ute notch 7806 sales across its 4x4 and 4x2 variants.

GWM, the brand formerly known as Great Wall Motors, had a productive 2022 thanks to its dual line-up of GWM-badged Ute (yes, that’s its name) and Haval-badged SUVs; Jolion, H6 and H6GT.

With combined sales of 25,042 GWM/Haval was 13th on the sales leaderboard, less than 1500 units behind Nissan and only 6000 sales short of cracking the top 10. It shows Australian consumers are warming to the newer Chinese offerings.

The GWM Ute is still a relative minnow in its segment but still managed to notch a meaningful 7806 sales across its 4x4 and 4x2 variants.

But the bigger growth for the Chinese outfit were the Havals. The compact Haval Jolin found 8217 buyers, more than double what it managed in 2021, which meant it out-sold the Toyota C-HR and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. Meanwhile, the mid-size Haval H6 sold 7009 examples, which was a 92.8 per cent increase on the previous year.

Continued growth in 2023 could definitely see GWM jump into the top 10 but it will need to compete against a resurgent Nissan.

Tesla and Volvo - both became top five luxury brands

In 2022, the Tesla Model 3 outsold the Toyota Camry.

Tesla was always in for a big year as it was the first year it reported its sales figures. But even so, the American brand’s performance was impressive, leap-frogging all rivals to become the closest challenger to the ‘Big Three’ German luxury brands - Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

In fact, Tesla actually passed Audi, becoming the third best-selling luxury brand with 19,594 sales compared to the four-rings brand’s 14,732. Making it even more impressive is that Tesla did it with just two models, compared to Audi’s 17 options, selling 10,877 Model 3 and 8717 Model Y.

Volvo, on the other hand, was not in its first year of reporting sales but still managed to enjoy significant growth. The Swedish brand’s sales were up 18.7 per cent in ‘22, largely on the back of the XC40, which was up 38.8 per cent. It’s no coincidence that this growth arrived along with the electric XC40 Recharge being added to the line-up and the brand’s public commitment to switch to an all-electric line-up by 2026.