The national fleet of registered motor vehicles increased by 1.7 per cent from last year to 19.5 million registered vehicles in 2019, according to newly released ABS Motor Vehicle Census data.
"While the total number of vehicles grew over the last year, it was a much smaller increase than the 2.1 per cent annual growth we have seen since 2015," said Lauren Binns, Director of ABS Transport Statistics.
Most states and territories reported overall increases in vehicle registrations in 2019 however, the rate of growth was lower than 2018, with the exception of Tasmania (up 2.6 per cent in 2019 from 2.4 per cent in 2018) and Western Australia (which reported a steady 0.6 per cent increase).
Toyota is again the most popular vehicle make registered in Australia, with 2.9 million Toyotas on the register in 2019. Whilst still in the top five registered makes for 2019, the number of Ford and Holden registrations continue to decline. Holden registrations fell by 5.8 per cent from 2018 to 2019, while Ford decreased by 5.9 per cent over the same period. Mazda and Hyundai have maintained the strong growth reported in recent years, coming in at third and fifth respectively.
Registrations of diesel vehicles continue to grow, comprising 24.6 per cent of the national fleet in 2019, up from 18.5 per cent of the fleet in 2014. Petrol powered vehicles reported another decrease in registrations from 2018 to 2019 falling to 73.6 per cent of all registered vehicles, down from 78.8 per cent in 2014.
The 2019 Motor Vehicle Census details the number of registered motor vehicles in Australia and provides information such as vehicle type, vehicle characteristics including the year of manufacture, and type of fuel used.
For further information see Motor Vehicle Census (cat No. 9309.0), available for free download.