Looking at the September VFACTS results, the only winner is electric power. The RAV4 hybrid won the top spot in August thanks to the more stock arriving. And when combined with the Corolla and Yaris hybrids, Toyota continues to do well with the right product at a time the market wants its..
Hybrid powered new cars are up 100% in 2020 so far with 40,834 being purchased. Pure electric cars are up 15.6% which doesn’t mean much with a tally of 1,225 cars. Even the PHEV category is up 4.4%. These numbers are great compared to petrol down 25.5%, and diesel down 21.3%. These are the only bright sparks in a sea of red in the VFACTS monthly results.
It reminds us of the post-GFC era when diesel powered small cars and SUVs were in demand. ULP prices has reached a high of $1.60 cpl in 2008 and by 2010 every Fleet Manager was evaluating a small car diesel option. Sales of diesel passenger cars to fleets reached a peak in 2012 and the national average pump price for ULP remained above $1.40 cpl from 2011 to 2014.
Mum and Dad new car buyers had already reacted to high pump prices and sales of diesel passenger cars to private purchases climax in 2010.
COVID will make the next 12 months interesting for many reasons, and it may just be the start of the electric car revolution.
