Tasmania's new vehicle sales are back on track to outperform 2018 after a relatively soft start to the year.
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The state had 1595 sales of new vehicles in March, compared to 1502 in March 2018.
That took year to date sales to 4426, which was 15 ahead of the total for the first three months of 2018, according to the latest VFACTS report from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
This year's sales had previously trailed last year's due to a weak January.
SUVs continued to extend their dominance over passenger vehicles.
The state had 752 sales of new SUVs in March and 1936 for the year to date, compared to 611 and 1793 in the corresponding periods a year earlier.
March sales of passenger vehicles slumped to 322 compared to 416 in March last year.
Their year to date sales fell from 1283 to 1041.
Tasmania had 463 sales of light commercials in March, up from 419 a year earlier.
Sales of heavy commercials edged up from 56 to 58.
Toyota maintained its Tasmanian market leadership in March with 235 sales (up from 208 in March last year).
Other strong sellers included:
- Mitsubishi, 183 (170 in March 2018);
- Subaru, 119 (116);
- Ford, 118 (116);
- Mazda, 111 (121);
- Nissan, 109 (78);
- Volkswagen, 100 (94); and
- Holden, 93 (77).
The take-up of electric vehicles remained tiny.
Of the 1595 new vehicle sales in March, just four were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
A further 24 were hybrids.
None of the 1595 vehicles were Australian-made, following on from the end of the Australian car industry.
Thailand (524) and Japan (514) were Tasmania's biggest sources of new vehicles sold.
South Korea (142) was a distant third, followed by Germany (90) and Mexico (47).
Less prolific sources included the Slovak Republic (one sale), Belgium (three), Canada (three), Finland (four), France (four) and India (five).