Covid-19 Creates Abysmal April For New Vehicle Registrations.

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says as expected April 2020 registrations are down 90% (9,601 units) compared to the same month last year, with 1039 new vehicles registered compared to April 2019 with 10,640 registrations.

“The month of April was closed for business other than for the supply of essential vehicles and 3 business days at the end of the month for contactless sales. That Distributors were able to sell as many as they did was 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% (15,676 units) on the same period in 2019.”

Key points

• Overall April 2020 registrations of vehicles were down 90.3% (9,601 units) on the same month in 2019.
• Registration of 707 passenger and SUVs for April 2020 were down 89.6% (6,071 units) on 2019 volumes.
• Commercial vehicle were down 91.4% (3,530 units) compared to April 2019.
• The top models for the month of April were the Kia Seltos (95 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (59 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place (38 units).
• There were 15 BEV’s, 1 PHEV and 27 Hybrids sold in the month of April.

Market leaders in April

For the month of April, Kia was the overall market leader with 16% market share (169 units), followed by Toyota with 13% (132 units) and the Suzuki in third spot with 10% market share (102 units).

Government Stimulus Required to Kickstart the New Vehicle Sector

The Government can play a decisive role in lessoning the economic pain we are feeling and today the MIA calls on the Government to fast track the following policies:

• The Government should accelerate the uptake of plug-in vehicles across the Government fleet. To date, uptake of plug-in vehicles by government agencies has been less than modest at best. The MIA calls on the Government to increase departmental votes (budgets) to permit departments to increase their uprate of BEV’s and PHEV’s.
• Prior to the pandemic, the MIA supported in principle the adoption of a feebate scheme. However, 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.
• Then there is the question of vehicle scrappage. We all know we have an old fleet with numerous polluting and unsafe cars roaming our roads. We believe it is time for the Government to provide financial incentives to remove the vehicles which 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.

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