Tuesdata: The automotive power player rankings, and the new contenders

A traditional industry sector is being shaken up

Welcome to Tuesdata, where we take a look at various data points across the media and marketing industry and the context behind them. 

The full content of this post is for Unmade’s paying members only. Others will hit the paywall a little lower down.

Today we’re focusing on the Australian automotive industry, using the latest data from VFacts to illustrate the top five manufacturers, their marketing bosses, key agencies and latest campaigns.

We’ll also use that data to discover the most prominent emerging manufacturers, uncovering who is behind their push and what they have done to significantly increase their sales numbers. 

There are a number of ways we could create an emerging manufacturer list. For this example, we’ll use percentage increase in sales figures compared to the previous year to find out who has climbed the most.

To make things more fair, only manufacturers that sold a minimum of 3,000 vehicles in 2021 will be included in the ranking. This is to avoid manufacturers with tiny sales figures making it onto the list by significantly increasing their sales on a percentage basis. For example, Renault performance brand Alpine (yes, the same brand as the F1 team) increased sales 300% in 2021. But that’s because it sold 28 cars in 2021 versus seven in 2020. 

VFacts data is compiled by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the peak body for Australia’s automotive industry. 

In 2020 it recorded the lowest new vehicle sales since 2003, but 2021 has seen a slight recovery, up 14.5% to 1,049,831.