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Car sales – make that SUVs – keep driving higher

 

Another day, more figures showing how very much brighter the New South Wales economic star is shining compared with the rest of the country.

And along the way, insights into our rapidly changing motoring preferences.

Any month now, there will be more new SUVs sold in Australia than passenger cars.

Today’s figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries show passenger cars’ share of the new vehicle market slipped to 39.5 per cent last month, down from 43.5 per cent a year ago.

SUVs now have 37.5 per cent of the market and steadily rising, as are light commercial vehicles which had a 20 per cent market share in May.

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New passenger vehicle sales are pretty much the same as they were 20 years ago – all of the market’s considerable growth has been in SUVs and light commercials.

And good growth it is, too, with May new vehicles sales up 3.6 per cent on the same month last year and up 3.8 per cent for the first five months of the year over last year’s record high.

Within that growth though, as with so many indicators, it’s New South Wales that is leading the way. More than 73 per cent of the year-to-date growth in vehicle sales has been in NSW – 12,449 of the extra 16,994 sales.

Also read: China's car buyers seek more room

The NSW new vehicle market has grown by a booming 8.5 per cent over the first five months of the year, more than double the national growth of 3.8 per cent.

That’s in keeping with just about every other measure of economic performance. It’s NSW first and often daylight second.

On the latest national accounts figures, annualising state final demand over the December and March quarters shows NSW was growing by a very robust 4.8 per cent. The next closest was Victoria, up 3 per cent.

Some of those new vehicles in NSW might be needed to ferry ever greater numbers of tourists around. Yes, NSW scores disproportionately higher in its share of the surging international tourist market.

Tourism is one of our fastest-growing industries with today’s ABS trend figures showing short-term arrivals in April up 10.2 per cent on the same month last year.

Using the original figures for comparison purposes, they’re up 8.3 per cent to 666,600 for the month.

When asked the state they spent most of their time in, 262,200 (37 per cent) said NSW. That’s up nearly 10 per cent on the previous April.

About the only thing NSW isn’t winning is the rugby league.

Michael Pascoe is one of Australia's most respected finance and economics commentators with over four decades in newspaper, radio, television and online journalism. He regularly appears on Channel 7's Sunrise and news programs and is a regular conference speaker, MC and facilitator.