July VFACTS: The Victoria factor
Sales remain down across the nation, but worst of all in Victoria, where fears of the covid-19 pandemic stifled sales by nearly 28 per cent last monthVictoria is in the news at the moment, for all the wrong reasons. New-car sales in Victoria have dropped again in July, as VFACTS figures released today have shown.
Australia’s second largest state by population only entered a stringent stage-four lockdown from August, but with the incidence of new covid-19 cases increasing rapidly with every passing day during July it was clear to consumers that this was no time to be buying a new car.
Sales in Victoria had fallen by 13.6 per cent in June – marking the difference between an EoFY sales period during a pandemic and the same period in 2019, before covid-19 reached local shores. The sales drop in June was unusually high, even so, when New South Wales recorded a slump of just 7.7 per cent in June, year on year, and the market as a whole showed signs of life.
The sales figure for Victoria last month was 27.8 per cent down. Tasmania was the only other state or territory in Australia to record a double-digit percentage reduction in July, down 22.6 per cent.
Sales of 17,487 vehicles in Victoria during the month marked a shortfall of nearly 7000 units on July 2019 (24,230 sales).
“Nationally, more than 72,505 vehicles were sold during the month, and this represents a decrease of 12.8 per cent on July 2019, when sales totalled 83,184,” said Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI (Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries).
“On a year to date basis, there were 514,920 vehicles sold to July 2020, which represents a decrease of 19.2 per cent on the same period in 2019, when sales totalled 637,650 vehicles.
“The Australian automotive industry, like many sectors in the Australian market, continues to face challenging and difficult conditions, exacerbated by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The extended Stage 4 Restrictions which have now been invoked in Australia’s second largest market, Victoria, will no doubt further challenge the industry during the coming months,” Weber was quoted as saying in a press release.
Toyota remained Australia’s most popular brand in July, selling 15,508 vehicles for the month. Following at a distance was Mazda (7806 sales), Mitsubishi (4684), Hyundai (4634) and Kia (4625 sales).
Sports Utility Vehicles remain the most popular class of vehicle, accounting for 50.4 per cent of the market last month. Light commercial vehicles represented 20.5 per cent of the market, and passenger vehicle sales contribute 25 per cent. The continuing decline in passenger-car market share is possibly due in part to the government’s focus on the Instant Asset Write-off to stimulate the sector of the economy buying commercial vehicles.
Top 10 brands for the year to date:
Toyota – 113,237 sales,
Mazda – 46,653 sales,
Hyundai – 35,421 sales,
Mitsubishi – 33,470 sales,
Ford – 32,224 sales,
Kia – 31,083 sales,
Volkswagen – 23,305 sales,
Nissan – 21,599 sales,
Honda – 18,728 sales,
Subaru – 17,821 sales.
Top 10 vehicles for the month:
Toyota RAV4 – 4309 sales,
Ford Ranger – 3104 sales,
Toyota HiLux – 2947 sales,
Toyota Corolla – 2192 sales,
Hyundai i30 – 1745 sales,
Mazda CX-5 – 1727 sales,
Mitsubishi Triton – 1593 sales,
Mazda CX-3 – 1355 sales,
Toyota Camry – 1281 sales,
Mazda3 – 1224 sales.
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