VFACTS for February: Market claws back GFC slump

The Australian automotive market picked up an outstanding 17.1 per cent growth in February, relative to February last year. Impressive as that is though, it doesn't compare with the 21.9 per cent decline the market experienced, year-on-year for February '09 versus February '08.

The result has been welcomed by the industry however, and supports Toyota's prediction from January that the industry is on the way to reaching a million sales again, next year.

82,219 new vehicles were sold for the month, an improvement of 11,978 units over February 2009. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), a return to the market by private buyers during the month contributed a 9.3 per cent gain over the February '09 reporting period. That bolstered sales during the period some anticipated seeing a slump in sales. February was expected to show an easing in vehicle deliveries to businesses taking advantage of the government tax incentive, which expired December 31, 2009.

"This is a very strong result and provides further evidence of renewed growth in vehicle sales," FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said of the result.

"It is encouraging to see private buyers edging back into the market following the financial concerns of the past year."

Despite the end of the small business tax incentive scheme, business buyers continued to support the new-car industry during the month, registering a 22.7 per cent increase.

"Deliveries of vehicles purchased under the business tax break are gradually phasing down and we need to examine how the market will look without the impact of economic stimulus," McKellar said.

"Looking ahead, sustaining the confidence of private buyers is the key challenge for the economy. For that reason we continue to be cautious about the impact of interest rate increases."

In his final address to the press in the capacity of Holden's managing director, Alan Batey expressed his satisfaction with the way the company had performed in the market for the month.

"Just to reflect where we're at right now, we've just got the February sales results and we've done extremely well," he said.

"Our sales are up 20 per cent over the same month last year. Our market share is up to 13.8 versus 12.9 [per cent] in 2009. Commodore was best-selling car, Captiva was Australia's best-selling SUV, Cruze also had a very strong month -- over 2000 units again were sold.

"And an excellent month again for Barina; we did 1292 units, versus 846 in 2009. So, we've continued to do really well and the market has been good. It's been competitive, it's been running actually -- January and February -- [at] over a million units, annualised.

"Hyundai and Holden clearly seem to be the big winners in the market right now -- and I hope that's going to continue. I'm expecting a really strong year from Holden in 2010."

Batey might be expecting and hoping that if Hyundai can continue its sales race in the same dynamic way that could reduce some of Toyota's market share -- both in specific segments and overall -- an enlarging Holden's at the other end of the see-saw.

Toyota, the market leader overall, retained the top selling position in February, and actually increased market share to 20.5 per cent. For the month, Toyota sold 16,814 vehicles, followed by Holden with 11,213 and for the first time in third position, Hyundai with 7208. Ford remains in third position for year-to-date sales, but sold 7148 units in February, only enough for fourth place. Mazda placed fifth for the month with 7003 sales, followed up by Mitsubishi (5026), Nissan (4596), Subaru (3278), Honda (3102) and Volkswagen (2998).

Unlike previous months, most of the top ten companies saw improved sales, year to date -- the exception being Honda, which has sold 6108 cars for the first two months, versus 8458 for the same period last year.

Top ten vehicles for the month of February 2010 were: Holden Commodore (3914), Mazda3 (3390), Toyota HiLux (3271), Toyota Corolla (3042), Hyundai i30 (2926), Ford Falcon (2514), Toyota Camry (2116), Holden Cruze (2075), Mitsubishi Lancer (2016), Hyundai Getz (1927).

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