Several more car brands will leave Australia, warns dealer body

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Several more car brands will leave Australia, warns dealer body

More and more auto brands are entering Australia’s cluttered new-car market, and the head of the organisation that represents local dealers says something has to give.

“The question is how many important brands are going to leave,” said James Voortman, CEO of the *********** Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) at CarExpert’s Road to Purchase in 2025 live event yesterday.

“I think we will see a number leave, some of them might not necessarily make the front pages.

“The question is how many of those [will be] established brands with large dealer networks, but importantly large customer bases – once you buy a car, you stay in that car for a few years.

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Camera IconGoing: Citroen Credit: CarExpert

“So I think that’s the important thing: who’s going to leave? I think there definitely will be departures, but I think the more important question is which brands are they?”

Most – but not all – of the brands coming to Australia hail from China, with Deepal, Leapmotor, Xpeng and Zeekr all launching this year.

They’ll be followed in 2025 by Geely and Chery spinoff brand Jaecoo, while Foton will also recommence selling utes in Australia next year under new distributor Inchcape.

That’s a lot of brands coming, but for now not many appear to be going. Citroen is the exception here, with local distributor Inchcape

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it would retire what had become Australia’s longest continually operating auto brand.

Camera IconGone: Holden Credit: CarExpert

“Brands leaving Australia is not something unique. I’ve been in this role about [seven years] at the AADA, and in that time we’ve lost Infiniti, we’ve lost Chrysler, we’ve lost Citroen recently. Before that we lost Opel. There have been others that have come and gone,” said Mr Voortman.

“The only significant one there was Holden. That was a big, big shockwave for our industry.”

Holden was officially shuttered in 2020, though parent company General Motors ******** here selling Chevrolets under the GM Specialty Vehicles banner. It’s also introducing the Cadillac and GMC brands.

Many of those Holden buyers will be looking to trade in their vehicles, and they will now be forced to look at different brands.

Camera IconComing: Deepal Credit: CarExpert

“Up until a few years ago… the second most registered vehicles on *********** roads were still Holdens,” said Mr Voortman.

As for which brands he thinks are in danger of packing up shop, Mr Voortman wouldn’t be drawn.

“All my dealers are treated equally. I don’t want to be declaring any sort of self-fulfilling prophecies, I’m certainly not going there,” he said.

Research commissioned by CarExpert and conducted by Nielsen has found the shortlists of new car buyers are longer than ever as the number of options in the market grows.

Camera IconComing: Xpeng Credit: CarExpert

A survey, involving 830 people buying or intending to buy a new car, found the average number of vehicles considered by new-car buyers is now 2.9, up 13 per cent year over year.

And 49 per cent of respondents said they were considering three or more vehicles.

However, the survey also found that the brand was the most important factor – at 36 per cent – for buyers when purchasing a new car.

In good news for the bevy of ******** carmakers to Australia, though, country of origin wasn’t the top-ranked factor for any respondents. It was also selected by only one per cent of respondents as a top-three factor.

Camera IconRelative newcomer: Cupra Credit: CarExpert

The research also looked at the perceived strength of brands, both early in the purchasing process and after a purchase.

While most brands performed worse among buyers who were asked post-purchase which ones they were interested in, some performed better.

BMW, for example, saw a 12 per cent rise in interest, while Chevrolet was up four per cent and relative newcomer Cupra was up by three per cent.

Brands that didn’t perform as well at either end of the purchase journey included Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, LDV, Mahindra, Peugeot and Renault.

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