Deteriorating economic conditions and the impact of a proposed luxury car tax increase “softened” Australian new vehicle sales in July, a trade group said.
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The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said sales of cars, trucks and buses fell 2.7% year on year to 83,976 units in July though the new car market was up 2.6% on the same time last year, which was an all-time record year.
“Higher fuel prices, interest rates and the wider economic uncertainty have resulted in a slowing of people heading to showrooms,” FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said.
The figures also show that sales of so-called ‘luxury’ cars fell by 33% in July, compared to the previous month.
“The proposed tax hike has had a devastating impact on new car sales,” McKellar said.
“It is clear that the downturn has been exacerbated by the impact of this unfair tax hike, and the industry has significant concerns that orders will continue to be affected in coming months.
“If this situation continues, the government will not receive the additional revenue it had projected and there is a real risk that it will cost jobs,” McKellar added.
“In these circumstances, one would have to question why the government would pursue this tax increase.”
Sales in most of the passenger car and sports utility vehicle segments were down except for light cars (up 1.0%), SUV medium (up 8.1%) and SUV large (up 7.4%).
Light commercial vehicle sales held up well in July, with an increase of 897 vehicles or 6.3% compared with July last year.
Toyota remained the top selling brand in July with 24.4% of the market, followed by General Motors’ Holden (13.3%) and Ford (11.3%).
Year-to-date, Toyota led the sales volume race with 147,961 vehicles, followed by Holden (78,271) and Ford (63,933).
