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While new brands and increased competition could spell lower prices for Australian buyers, a local Toyota executive is warning customers to research their options.
An influx of new brands into the Australian market could be great for consumers, but buyers need to do their research, says a senior Toyota Australia executive.
Sean Hanley – Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Toyota Australia – doesn't go so far as calling out specific pitfalls that could face buyers in the future, but warns Australians to do their homework on future purchases.
“Every week we wake up, there’s a new brand coming, of some description. It doesn’t matter where they are from,” Hanley said, speaking to Drive at a recent media event.
“They’re mostly Chinese brands. But in the future that could be Vietnamese brands, it could be United States brands. It could be any brand, right?
“The question that intrigues me is: 'how does 70-plus brands continue to be sustainable in a market of less than 1.2 million?'
“That’s going to be the intriguing part, how do you navigate that?”
When asked about whether increased competition is good for the Australian consumer, Hanley said it was ‘wonderful’ for the consumer in the short term.
Increased competition in Australia, brought about by a slew of new brands entering the market, should theoretically lower prices for consumers.
When asked about specific longer-term risks for car buyers, Hanley was more guarded.
“Well, I guess it's yet to be seen. Some of these brands are probably well known in their origin, but I'm not sure they're so well known in Australia,” Hanley said.
"So, I don't know, I guess consumers will have to do their own research and homework as they do and make that decision.”
“We’re seeing some brands bringing in a bit more stock in the market. We’re seeing some deals start to get cut, we’re seeing old model year vehicle deals and that sort of thing," Hanley said.
"2024 has been pretty good from a record point of view for a while, but we’re seeing it tail off."
Compared to an overall sales volume that is predicted to be more than 1.2 million vehicles in 2024, Hanley is forecasting the market to shrink to somewhere between 1.150-1.185 million vehicles in 2025.
“(The local market) is not going to drop off the cliff... It'd still be healthy, but it will cool off a bit. And I think it'll be that way, potentially, for the next few years.”
“The market is going to become very crowded in the next few years with a lot of proliferation of product – there are some countries that are alert to it and have started looking at import barriers and tariffs because there is some dumping that is going to happen,” Mr Westcott said in a recent interview.
Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures.
