March New Vehicle Sales Savaged Due To Impact Of Covid-19

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that March 2020 registrations are down 37.3% (4,954 units) compared to the same month last year, with 8,317 new vehicles registered compared to March 2019 with 13,271 registrations.

“The month of March was already slowing due to supply constraints from shut down manufacturing plants around the world and then they ground to a halt when the Covid-19 alert level 4 was implemented. Year to date the market is down 15.6% (6,075units) on the same period in 2019.”

“The prospect for registrations during April remains bleak with the Covid-19 level 4 alert planned to be in place for the majority of the trading month.

Key points

Overall March 2020 registrations of vehicles were down 37.5% (4,954 units) on the same month in 2019.

Registration of 5,416 passenger and SUVs for March 2020 were down 35.7% (3,009 units) on 2019 volumes.

Pure electric vehicles bucked the trend and were slightly up with 144 units sold in February, with PHEV’s down at 58 units and 511 hybrid vehicles continuing their solid sales performance.

Commercial vehicle registrations which have been trending down for five months previously, were down a massive 40.0% (1,945 units) compared to March 2019.

The top models for the month of March were the Ford Ranger (444 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (435 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place (370 units).

Market leaders in March

For the month of March, Toyota remains the overall market leader with 18% market share (1,515 units), followed by Holden with 10% (835 units) and the Mitsubishi in third spot with 8% market share (694 units).

SUV and passenger vehicle sales in March and for the year

For the month of March, Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 17% market share (918 units) followed by Holden with 9% (461 units) and then Suzuki with 7% market share (397 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (318 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (240 units) and the Nissan Qashqai (173 units).

Commercial vehicle sales

Toyota regained the market lead with 21% market share (597 units) followed by Ford with 18% (508 units) and Holden third with 13% market share (374 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 15% share (444 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux also with 15% share (435 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place with 13% market share (370 units).

Smaller vehicles dominated the market in March

The top three segments for the month of March were once again SUV medium vehicles with 18% share followed by SUV Compact also with 16% market share and the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 16%.

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