Official VFACTS new-vehicle sales figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show the Australian market was down 17.9 per cent in March.
With the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic impacting consumers and businesses from mid-month, the new-car market is now 13.1 per cent down compared to the first quarter of 2019 and the industry is bracing for more pain in April.
Significant sales declines were posted by most brands last month. However, there were brands that lifted their sales in March, including market leader Toyota (+1.6%), Holden (+30.2%), Kia (+6.6%) and Subaru (+0.2%), plus low-volume brands such as Haval (+131.5%), MG (+75.5%) and Great Wall (+67.7%).
The passenger cars segment experienced the biggest sales decline (down 24.9%), followed by light commercials (-15.5%) and SUVs (-14.2%). Large cars (-55.4%) were the most impacted and small cars (-16.6%) the least. While large SUVs were down almost a quarter, light SUVs actually proved more popular YOY (up 25.6%).
All states except the ACT (up 77%) were down, with the NT (-33.5%) the worst affected, followed by SA (-27.9%), Victoria (-21.3%), Tasmania (-21.2%), Queensland (-20.2%), NSW (-16.4%) and WA (-14.4%).
