March is supposed to be one of the most profitable months for New Zealand’s car industry, but the coronavirus outbreak has had a dramatic effect on new vehicle sales.

According to the Motor Industry Association (MIA) figures, new vehicle registrations were down nearly 40 per cent, with 8,317 units sold compared to13,271 in March 2019.

MIA Chief Executive David Crawford said, “the month of March was already slowing due to supply constraints from shut down manufacturing plants around the world”.

“Then they ground to a halt when the Covid-19 alert level 4 was implemented (in New Zealand). Year to date the market is down 15.6 per cent (6,075units) in the same period in 2019,” said Crawford in a press statement.

“The prospect for registrations during April remains bleak with the Covid-19 level 4 alert planned to be in place for the majority of the trading month.”

Overall, for March 2020 registrations of vehicles were down 37.5 per cent (4954 units) in the same month in 2019.

When it came to segments, the registration of 5416 passenger and SUVs for March 2020 were down 35.7 per cent  (3009 units) on 2019 volumes.

But pure electric vehicles were slightly up with 144 units sold in February, with plug-in electric vehicles down at 58 units and 511 hybrid vehicles “continuing their solid sales performance” said Crawford.

“Commercial vehicle registrations, which have been trending down for five months previously, were down a massive 40.0 per cent (1,945 units) compared to March 2019.”

The top models for the month of March were the Ford Ranger (444 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (435 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place (370 units).

For the month of March, Toyota remains the overall market leader with 18 per cent market share (1515 units), followed by Holden with 10 per cent (835 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 8 per cent market share (694 units).

For March, Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 17 per cent market share (918 units) followed by Holden with 9 per cent (461 units) and then Suzuki with 7 per cent market share (397 units).

The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (318 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (240 units) and the Nissan Qashqai (173 units).

Meanwhile, the MIA has asked the public to be understanding “if a request to service or repair your vehicle during this time is declined. The sooner we can stop the spread of the novel corona virus the sooner New Zealand can reopen for business”.