New vehicle sales in the Australian market for the month of April 2020 have been announced by Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).
“A total of 38,926 sales were recorded for the month. This figure represents a fall of 48.5 per cent over the same period last year (75,550 sales), and the largest single decrease of any month since VFACTs figures were first recorded in 1991.
Year to date figures for April totalled 272,287 sales, down from 344,088 in 2019, which equates to a 20.9 per cent decline.
“Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major influence on the April sales result, and reflects a downturn in the broader economy right across the country,” Mr Weber said.
“The Australian new vehicle market has been under stress for some time, with April 2020 representing the 25th consecutive month of declining sales on a year-on-year basis (for example April 2020 compared to April 2019). Environmental, economic and political factors, along with tight credit lending restrictions, have all contributed to this fall.”
Toyota was market leader in April, followed by Mazda and Kia.
KEY POINTS:
The April 2020 market of 38,926 new vehicle sales is a decrease of 36,624 vehicle sales or -48.5% on April 2019 (75,550) vehicle sales. April 2020 had 23.9 selling days compared to April 2019 with 23.0, but this resulted in a decrease of 1656.1 vehicle sales per day.
The Passenger Vehicle Market is down by 14,659 vehicle sales (-61.6%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is down by 15,167 vehicle sales (-45.7%); the Light Commercial Market is down by 6,165 vehicle sales (-39.5%); and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is down by 633 vehicle sales (-21.5%) versus April 2019.
