The market for new vehicles took a dramatic fall in March, down nearly 5000 units year-on-year.
March 2020 registrations were down 37.3% (4954 units) compared to the same month last year, with 8317 new vehicles registered compared to March 2019 with 13,271 registrations.
Commercial vehicle registrations, which have been trending down for five months previously, were down a massive 40% (1945 units) compared to March 2019.
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 15% share (444 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux also with 15% share (435 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place with 13% market share (370 units).
“The month of March was already slowing due to supply constraints from shut down manufacturing plants around the world and then they ground to a halt when the COVID-19 alert level 4 was implemented,” Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford says.
Year-to-date, the market is down 15.6% (6075units) on the same period in 2019.
“The prospect for registrations during April remains bleak with the COVID-19 level 4 alert planned to be in place for the majority of the trading month,” Crawford says.
Passenger vehicle registrations were down 35.7% to 5416 units, 3009 less than 2019.
Toyota remains the overall market leader with 18% market share (1515 units), followed by Holden with 10% (835 units) and the Mitsubishi in third spot with 8% market share (694 units).
Toyota also leads passenger and SUV registrations with 17% market share (918 units) followed by Holden with 9% (461 units) and then Suzuki with 7% market share (397 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (318 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (240 units) and the Nissan Qashqai (173 units).
The top three segments for the month of March were once again SUV medium vehicles with 18% share followed by SUV Compact also with 16% market share and the Pick Up/Chassis 4×4 segment with 16%.
Pure electric vehicles bucked the trend and were slightly up with 144 units sold in February, with PHEV’s down at 58 units and 511 hybrid vehicles continuing their solid sales performance.
