New vehicle sales in Australia reached a total of 99,442 in March, which is lower than last year’s number by 7546. This is a 7.1% decrease.
“We are seeing a cautious consumer approach at the moment, and this is not surprising given the number of economic headwinds in the Australian market,” says chief executive of the FCAI Tony Weber, contributing the reason to the current economic conditions.
The Toyota HiLux reported a number of 4527 sales, taking out the top selling vehicle. It was followed by the Ford Ranger with 3721 sales and the Mitsubishi Triton with 2666 sales. These three top vehicles highlight the market’s desire for light commercial vehicles.
The Australian market has seen a massive growth of SUVs and LCVs. They represented 67.5% of new vehicle sales in the market during March, 4.5% higher than March 2018.
Only three passenger vehicles were a part of the top ten vehicles sold in March.
On a year to date basis, across all segments sales are down 7.9% from last year. Passenger vehicles are down 17.8%, SUV sales down 3.5% and light commercial vehicles are down 0.4%.
South Australia and Tasmania showed a 9.4% and 6.4% growth respectively in new vehicle sales during March, but other states showed a decline.
