Like some of its fellow relative newcomer brands from China, LDV is on the up-and-up in Australia.
But it's not small- or mid-size SUVs bulking up the brand's sales, LDV is instead quietly achieving on the light-commercial vehicle front.
The brand's vans and dual-cab ute are all achieving hundreds or even thousands of sales more in 2023 so far - up to the halfway point of the year - than at the same time in 2022. A particularly good June helped - 2760 LDVs were sold last month compared to 1033 in June last year.
Topping this growth is the LDV T60 ute, which has sold 3258 more this year than last so far, a total of 4822 T60 4x4s and 41 4x2s have been sold in 2023.
The T60 is responsible for about three quarters of LDV's sales rise this year so far, with the brand up by 4077 sales - 11,250 this year over 7173 in 2022.
In one of the most hard-fought segments of Australia's new car market, the 4x4 dual-cab segment, the T60 is outselling the likes of the Nissan Navara so far this year (3474 sales in H1) and the recently-refreshed Volkswagen Amarok (2202).
Next up for recognition in building LDV's 2023 figures is the Deliver 9 large van, with 645 more sold this year in commercial van guise. That's thanks to the brand shifting 2127 units in H1 2023, over the 1482 from H1 last year.
The G10+ LCV is also doing noticeably better this year over last, 420 up with a total 1956 sales compared to last year's 1536.
When asked by CarsGuide what some of the factors in the huge increase in sales over 2022 were, a spokesperson for LDV in Australia told us it was essentially the classic mix of supply being able to meet an increasing demand, and a dealer network willing to keep stock rolling through at an increased pace.
Whether the increasing sales cadence is expected to continue isn't clear, but the spokesperson indicated there's an intention to keep it going as much as possible, and that there were no obvious roadblocks at this point.
At this point in 2022, LDV had about a 1.3 per cent share of the market. This year it's 1.9 per cent.
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