New car sales skyrocket in June due to JobKeeper and instant asset write-off schemes
Crisis? What crisis? New car sales surged in June, with one luxury brand reporting a staggering 60 per cent rise in sales.
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New car sales were turbocharged in June.
A total of 110, 234 vehicles found a new home during the past month — a sharp rise from the April low of less than 39,000 sales.
The impressive result is still down 6.4 per cent on the 2019 result of about 118,000.
But it’s a strong result considering the dire economic climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tony Weber, the head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) puts the strong sales result down to a number of factors.
“Some states have seen the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and this has increased floor traffic through dealerships,” said Mr Weber.
“The extension of the Government’s instant asset write-off scheme has also been a positive influence. This program allows businesses to bring forward tax deductions for eligible expenditure.
“Finally, we have seen a strong surge in marketing activity from both brands and dealerships, who are offering an array of attractive retail packages in a bid to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Australian Automotive Dealer Association chief James Voortman backed up those statements.
“This result is a sign that incentives like JobKeeper and the instant asset write-off scheme are helping and is no doubt reflective of the easing of restrictions caused by the pandemic and some really appealing end of financial year deals,” said Mr Voortman.
The success of the instant asset write-off scheme is illustrated by the strong sales of commercial vehicles.
Four of the top five best selling vehicles in the past month were machines favoured by tradies and mining companies.
The Toyota HiLux was again the country’s most popular vehicle with 6537 sales – which is an increase of more than a 1000 compared to June 2019.
The Ford Ranger (5329), Toyota LandCruiser (2909) and Mitsubishi Triton (2721) all featured in the top five.
American brand Ram showed there is an appetite for US-style pick-up trucks with sales soaring by 130 per cent and are up more than 50 per cent for the year so far. This is despite a starting price of about $80,000.
Bargain hunters were also out in force. Chinese brands Great Wall, Haval, LDV and MG all had a strong month.
While ute and light commercial vehicle sales were strong, Australians are ditching passenger cars in favour of high-riding SUVs.
Small cars – a former pillar of Aussie new cars sales – fell again in June, down by about 4000 or a fifth compared to June last year.
The former best-selling Mazda3 bore the brunt of the decline, as did key rivals the Hyundai i30 and Kia Cerato. Sales of the evergreen Toyota Corolla remained robust.
Big spenders returned in June, with a number of luxury brands reporting big increases.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz were both up about 30 per cent and Lexus soared a staggering 60 per cent.
Top 10 selling new cars in June
Toyota HiLux – 6537
Ford Ranger – 5329
Toyota Corolla – 3008
Toyota LandCruiser – 2909
Mitsubishi Triton – 2721
Toyota RAV4 – 2632
Mazda CX-5 – 2530
Toyota Prado – 2374
Hyundai i30 – 2368
Hyundai Tucson – 2206
Top 10 selling brands in June
Toyota – 22,867
Mazda – 9420
Hyundai – 7737
Ford – 7624
Mitsubishi – 7419
Volkswagen – 5737
Kia – 5727
Mercedes-Benz – 4437
Nissan – 4260
Subaru – 3775
Originally published as New car sales skyrocket in June due to JobKeeper and instant asset write-off schemes