New Vehicle Market Continues its Bumpy Ride for 2019

New Vehicle Market Continues its Bumpy Ride for 2019

Fewer new vehicles were sold in July compared to the same month last year continuing our expectation that the overall market for the year will be down on 2018.

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that for the month of July the number of new vehicle sales were 3.5% lower than July last year.

He says overall year-to-date sales were down by 5.2% percent on the first seven months of 2018.

“The trend for 2019 is a bumpy ride but overall downwards compared to 2018.”

Key points

• Overall July 2019 registrations of 11,897 vehicles were down 3.5% (427 units) on the same month in 2018.

• The market overall to the end of July is down 5.2% (4,825 units) on the first seven months of 2018.

• Registration of 7,925 passenger and SUVs for July 2019 were down 1.4% (116 units) on 2018 volumes, and commercial vehicle registrations of 3,972 were down 7.3% (311 units) compared to July 2018.

• The top two models for the month of July were utes, with the Ford Ranger continuing its hold on the top spot (657 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (534 units) and the Toyota Corolla in third place (500 units).

Market leaders in July

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 18% market share (2,185 units), followed by Ford with 9% (1,040 units) with Mitsubishi regaining third spot with 8% market share (950 units).

SUV and passenger vehicle sales

Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 18% market share (1,432 units) followed by Mazda with 9% (713 units) and then Kia with 7% market share (585 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (500 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (442 units) and the Kia Sportage (302 units).

Commercial vehicle sales

Ford retained the market lead with 19% market share (760 units) closely followed by Toyota also with 19% (753 units) and Mitsubishi third with 11% market share (451 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 17% share (657 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 13% share (534 units) with the Mitsubishi Triton in third with 11% market share (451 units).

SUVs and light commercials continue market dominance

The top three segments for the month of July were SUV medium vehicles with 20% share followed by the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 segment with 16% share and the SUV Compact in third with 14% market share.

Year to date SUVs account for 43% of the market and light commercials 41%. The share of the passenger car market has fallen year to date to 24% of the market.

This reflects a fundamental change over the last five years in consumers’ preferences for vehicles. In July 2014 the SUV share was just 30% of the market whereas passenger vehicles accounted for 42% market share.

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