New car sales down 90 per cent

Following a brutal month for new car sales, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) is calling on the Government to play a ‘‘decisive role’’ in kick-starting the new vehicle sector as the country moves towards level 2 of the coronavirus lockdown.

According to the MIA, April 2020 registrations were down 90 per cent compared to the same month last year. A total of 1039 new vehicles were registered compared to 10,640 registrations in April last year.

This is hardly unexpected, but it is a larger blow to an industry that was already facing a decline in sales this year after several years of growth.

‘‘The month of April was closed for business, other than for the supply of essential vehicles and three business days at the end of the month for contactless sales,’’ said MIA chief executive David Crawford.

‘‘That distributors were able to sell as many as they did is a testament to their determination to partially re-open for business while maintaining strict health and safety processes. Year to date, the market is down almost 32 per cent (15,676 units) on the same period in 2019.’’

With registrations of just 707 passenger vehicles and SUVs registered in April 2020, sales were down 89.6 per cent (6071 units) on 2019 volumes. Commercial vehicles were hit even harder, down 91.4 per cent (3530 units) compared to 2019.

There was some small good news for Kia which leapt into the lead of the sales race with a 16 per cent share of the small April market. With 169 units sold, Kia was followed by Toyota on 13 per cent (132 units) and the Suzuki in third spot with a 10 per cent market share (102 units).

The best-selling models for the month were the Kia Seltos (95 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (59 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place (38 units).

The MIA says the Government can play a decisive role in lessening the economic pain for the industry. It wants several policies to be fast-tracked, including accelerating the uptake of plug-in vehicles across the Government fleet.

The body says that to date ‘‘uptake of plug-in vehicles by government agencies has been less than modest at best’’.

It calls on the Government to increase budgets to permit departments to increase their uptake of BEVs and PHEVs. Before the pandemic, the MIA supported in principle the adoption of a feebate scheme, but it is now pulling back on that, saying that given the ‘‘degree of fiscal impact the pandemic is causing, we believe this policy needs immediate review.

It is our view the Government should defer the introduction of a feebate scheme and instead provide incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles, to be reviewed in 2023.’’

The MIA is also calling for the introduction of a vehicle scrappage scheme, saying: ‘‘We all know we have an old fleet with numerous polluting and unsafe cars roaming our roads.

‘‘It is time for the Government to provide financial incentives to remove the vehicles that are older than 20 years of age and/or where their exhaust emissions standards are the equivalent of Euro three or less. This would also be in line with the new road safety strategy and the Government’s climate change objectives.’’