Sales of new motor vehicles in March 2016 reached 104,512 units and year to date sales have passed the quarter million mark in 2016 with sales of 285,328. March 2016 sales are down slightly on March 2015 figures (0.5%) and year to date sales are up 2.8% on the same period in 2015.
Releasing the figures today the Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, noted that the slight decline in sales is almost all attributed to a decline in demand for passenger motor vehicles. “Passenger motor vehicle sales in March 2016 are down by 9.4% compared to March 2015, while sales of SUVs and Light Commercials were up 8.3% and 7.1% respectively”, he said. “This is in line with the trend over the recent period with significantly increased popularity of the SUV vehicle range. The features of these vehicles are certainly attracting the mainstream Australian buyer”.
Overall sales of SUVs are up 13.8% year to date with sales of 108,369 vehicles, representing 38% of total sales. Light commercial vehicles represent 18.1% of total year to date sales and passenger vehicles 41.5%.
Business and government purchases of SUVs are up 15.1% and 8.3% respectively on March 2015 figures further entrenching the trend towards the versatility of the SUV. Business and government purchases of passenger vehicles were down 5.4% and 17.8% on March 2015 figures respectively.
Sales were down in all States and Territories with the exception of New South Wales (up 6.5%) and the ACT (up 3.6%).
Toyota maintained the market leadership with 17.1% of total sales in March 2016, followed by Mazda with 9.8%, Hyundai with 9.3%, Holden with 8% and Mitsubishi with 6.2%.
The top selling vehicle for March 2016 was the Hyundai i30 with 4,198 sales, followed by the Toyota Hilux (3,897), the Toyota Corolla (3,612) the Mazda 3 (3,145) and the Ford Ranger (2,960).