New Vehicle Sales Steady In March 2016

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).

Key points:

• The March 2016 market of 104,512 new vehicle sales is a decrease of 542 vehicle sales or -0.5% on March 2015 (105,054) vehicle sales. March 2016 (27.0) had one more selling day than March 2015 (26.0), and resulted in a decrease of 169.7 vehicle sales per day.

• The March 2016 industry volume is up 8,069 or 8.4% on February 2016 (96,443) vehicles.

• The Passenger Vehicle Market is down 4,533 vehicle sales (-9.4%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is up by 2,934 vehicle sales (8.3%); the Light Commercial Market is up by 1,312 vehicle sales (7.1%); and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Marketis down by 255 vehicle sales (-8.7%) versus February 2015.

• Toyota was market leader in March, followed by Mazda and Hyundai. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 7,621 vehicle sales, or 7.3 market share points.

VFACTS monthly vehicle sales data is available at Midday on the 3rd working day after the end of every month. Select data and media releases on the sales results are available at www.fcai.com.au

For further information contact:

Tony Weber

P: 02 6247 3811

E: info@fcai.com.au