Our take on the latest Car registrations (Thu 4 Jun 2020)
Total car registrations down 25%pa
New car registrations down 29%pa
Used car registrations down 22%pa
The key numbers...
- A total of 14,965 cars were registered in May 2020, down 25% (or 4,871 vehicles) from May 2019.
- This is a bad result but still a vast improvement from April 2020 when the country was in Level 4 lockdown for most of the month and total car registrations fell 93%.
- Used car registrations recovered slightly better, down 22%pa, while new car registrations were down 29%pa. Back in April, used car registrations were down 94%pa and new car registrations were down 90%pa.
- There were only 13 rental vehicles registered in May 2020, down 97% (or 361) from May 2019.
Monthly car registrations
Annual % changes, source: NZTA
...and our reaction
- A 25%pa reduction in car registrations is bad but it could have been worse considering we were still in Level 3 for 12 days of May and trading conditions under Level 3 were still relatively restrictive.
- May’s result, particularly for used cars, may have been inflated by households spending money that they saved during lockdown.
- Economic activity is now much higher under Level 2, but the economic conditions that created the high volume of sales seen in recent years (strong population growth and consumer spending) are still a long way off.
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