Ken Gratton•7 Jan 2014
NEWS
Market dominance a thing of the past
Commodore's winning sales streak an unrepeatable event in the futureThe new car market in Australia has changed irrevocably, the head of the industry's peak body hinted yesterday.
Gone are the days when one locally-manufactured vehicle could sustainably hold a dominant position in the market, as the Holden Commodore did from the late 1990s through to 2010.
That assessment came from Tony Weber, Chief Executive for the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Speaking at a presentation of VFACTS sales results for 2013, Weber effectively told journalists that competition in the local market is now so cut-throat that no one car can achieve the sort of sales success that would justify local manufacturing. He did, however, note that Australian cars were performing quite well in what is a challenging business environment and refuted that the local manufacturers are failing to build desirable vehicles for Australian buyers.
"Local manufacturers received a lot of attention last year, including comments they were not making the vehicles Australians wanted," he said. "The 2013 sales results prove that, once again, this is just not true.
"Throughout the year, I know that the Australian-made Holden Commodore, Toyota Camry and Holden Cruze continually made the top ten sales around the country. And when you look at the top twenty release today, these vehicles – and the Ford Falcon – all appear.
"In a highly competitive market, with 67 brands and over 350 models, it's a great achievement to have these four vehicles feature so prominently.
"To further demonstrate how competitive the Australian market is, I'd like to point out that 10 years ago, we had a much smaller market. In 2003, we had around 910,000 sales. The top-selling vehicle was the Holden Commodore, with around 87,000 sales. This meant that one car sold 9.5 per cent of the market.
"By contrast, in 2013 [and] despite the larger market, the top two selling cars didn't sell as many units [combined] as the top-selling car 10 years ago. And together, they only sold 7.5 per cent of the market.
"On top of this, while one brand left our market last year, we're still continuing to see emerging brands exploring opportunities in Australia."
Weber saw the intense competition in the market as a profoundly good result for the consumer, but it adds to what Toyota boss Tony Cramb described as "unprecedented pressure" on the company's local production business model following Holden's announcement it would close up the vehicle assembly plant at Elizabeth in 2017.
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Written byKen Gratton
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