The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the peak body for the Australian automotive industry, has provided the new vehicle sales figures for the month of April 2019.
Total sales for the month were 75,550 units, an 8.9 per cent decrease on April 2018 when 82,930 sales were recorded.
Year to date sales figures for April 2019 totalled 344,088 units, an 8.1 per cent decrease on the same period in 2018.
Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI, commented on the April sales figures:
“The results for April are in line with trends for year-to-date 2019. We have seen a decrease of around eight per cent across the first four months of the year.
“This decrease is the result of a number of factors in the Australian market, including the downturn in the housing market, the tightening of lending practices, environmental factors such as drought and flood, and, of course, the imminent Federal Government election.
“With all these elements currently present in the market, it is no surprise that Australian consumers are conservative in their approach to major purchases at the moment,” Mr Weber said.
Passenger vehicles totalled 23,816 sales or 31.5 per cent of the market SUVs totalled 33,190 sales or 43.9 per cent of the market and Light Commercial vehicles totalled 15,601 sales or 20.6 per cent of the market.
Toyota once again claimed the top spot with 15,135 sales. Mazda, with 7644 sales, claimed second position, and was followed by Hyundai in third position with 6469 sales. Ford, with 4803 sales and Mitsubishi, with 4717, completed the top five marques.
