April saw the highest registrations of commercial vehicles in 30 years, according to figures released by the Motor Industry Association this afternoon.
April new commercial vehicle registrations of 2235 vehicles were the highest April sales since 1982 when 2754 commercial vehicles were sold.
Commercial vehicle sales in April 2013 show a 38% increase on April 2012 sales of 1618 new vehicles, while year-to-date the sector is up an impressive 41% (2615 vehicles) above this time in 2012.
New passenger car sales of 5908 vehicles in April was also on the up – by 8.8% on April 2012 sales of 5430, while for the year they are up 3.2% (810 vehicles) ahead of this time 2012.
David Crawford, chief executive officer of the MIA, welcomes the strong market.
“This result shows the commercial vehicle market remains strong, and well up on the levels of sales pre the global financial crisis,” Crawford says. “Commercial vehicle registrations continue to perform at levels last seen in the mid 1980’s.”
Toyota remains the market leader taking 19.3% of total registrations with 1,477 registrations (918 passenger cars and 559 commercials). Ford was second overall with 944 new vehicle registrations and Holden third with 748 new vehicle registrations. Holden was second in the passenger car segment with 588 registrations followed by Hyundai with 542.
The top selling passenger car model for the month was the Suzuki Swift with 307 sales, followed by Toyota Corolla with 287 sales, with the 3rd equal position going to the Mazda CX – 5 and Toyota RAV 4 each selling 205 cars. In the commercial segment the Ford Ranger was the top selling model with 416 vehicles sold, followed by the Toyota Hilux (360 vehicles) and Nissan Navara on 212 vehicles.
For the month of April the SUV segment remained the most popular with 27.7% of total registrations. This was followed by the Pick Up/Chassis Cab segment which accounted for 19% of all registrations.
