Supply is back – another 100k+ new cars sold in June. The official figure is 110,664. This ends a cracking six month in 2021 where new car sales are 28.3% ahead of the same period last year when COVID caused sales to slump in April.
Industry spectators say that car dealerships are making more money than ever after a disastrous period leading into 2020 which saw net profit drop to below 1%. Dealers were killing each other with excessive discounting and manufacturers keep demanding more.
Now in 2021, fleet deliveries are being scheduled out six months in favour of retail sales that aren’t being discounted so the margins are better than ever. Some vehicles (Landcruiser V8 diesels) are being held back by dealers until the right margin opportunity comes along.
The message for Fleet Managers and novated lease buyers – Get your orders in early or miss out on a 2021 delivery.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said the June result was consistent with buying patterns usually recorded at this time of year.
“Expectations for a strong result in June had remained high given the traditional end of financial year demand from business and private buyers driven by Government incentives such as the extension of the depreciation allowance announced in the Federal budget coupled with intensive marketing activity from vehicle brands,” he said.
“In spite of some States being forced into COVID-19 lockdowns towards the end of June, the acquisition of a new vehicle remains a popular option for buyers across all market segments.”
Mr Weber noted that Government purchases were up 10.4 per cent compared with the same month last year while sales across all vehicle types for the Rental market were up 192 per cent for the same period.
“The delivery challenges caused by microprocessor shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain are yet to be fully resolved, however, all parties are continuing to find ways to meet the strong demand for customers across all sectors.
“It is our expectation that these issues will begin to be resolved as the global economy continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19,” Mr Weber said.
“Right now, we would expect customer demand across all segments to remain strong for the second half of 2021 which has the market on track to return to a result in excess of one million vehicles.”
Toyota was the market leader in June recording sales of 21,076. It was followed by Mazda (12,225), Ford (8,456), Kia (7,890), and Hyundai (7,357). The Ford Ranger was the highest selling vehicle (6,058) followed by the Toyota Hi-Lux (5,412), the Isuzu Ute D-Max (3,167), Mazda CX-5 (3,018) and the Kia Cerato (2,711).
