Aimee Whiley: Motor Industry Association CEO on five months of dropping sales

It’s the fifth straight month of slow new car sales, and it’s likely for more dealers to close. 

This comes after the Government removed the Clean Car Discount – stating the Clean Car Standard will achieve results.  

Motor Industry Association CEO Aimee Whiley told Jack Tame “It feels harder right now, than it did during the GFC.” 

Wiley said “Consumer demand has shifted too – the kind of vehicles Kiwis want has changed.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack two ninety two ninety two is the text number.
If you're going to flick a message this afternoon, don't
forget that standard text costs apply. You can email me
as well if you like Jacket news talks. He'db dot
co dot NZ. The Motor Vehicle Industry or the Motor
Industry Association rather is warning more car dealers are going
to go bust after the fifth straight month of slow

(00:20):
new car sales. This year, the sales are thirteen percent lower,
so that's about eight thousand fewer sales than last year
and almost twenty five percent lower, so just over sixteen
and a half thousand fewer sales than in twenty twenty two.
Motor Industry Association Chief executive Amy Wiley is with us. Now,
Hi Amy, Hi Jackie. Why are we seeing such a

(00:42):
significant drop in sales.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, we are in economic recessionary times, and I'm sure
it's not just limited to the sales of new cars
and SUVs, but it's probably across the board. But given
that we can measure based on monthly registrations how well
we're going, I think it's both at economic slower economy
and higher interest rates slowing down the number of vehicles
being sold, but also consumer demand has shifted too, and

(01:08):
the types of vehicles that kibis want the year of change.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So are you seeing a drop in sales when it
comes to secondhand vehicles.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Not to the same extent as new.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Se that's interesting a So if it is a pinch,
then maybe it's been felt at the higher end of
the market, you think.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. So in May we're down about thirty three percent,
so about a third on new vehicles, and I think
it's down about nine percent used.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Wow. Did the end of the of the clean car discount,
the EV subsidy, U tax, whatever you want to call it,
have anything to do with the change in sales?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, I think it is policy driven. With the end
of the clean car discount and with the introduction of
road user charges. Just recently, we're seeing demand for eva's
a slump right well, down fourteen percent this year, and
we're seeing that for people who are still buying new
car they've decided to buy petrol equivalents instead.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, that's interesting. So what do you think is going
to be the end result of all this? So things
are going to get much worse.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, with the government's budget announcement last week and listening
to some of the key economists in the country, it
sounds like we're in for probably a bit of a
tough quarter three and quarter four, but for hopefully and
hopefully businesses can ride out the next six months and
we'll see some improvement in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think, is anyone doing well.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well? It's hard to answer that question. Actually, I guess
people selling hybrid vehicles probably are, right, that's where you know,
for cars being sold at the moment, there's a huge
demand for hybrids, mild hybrids, petrol hybrids, I guess they're
doing well. But as for everybody else in industry, given
that evs were in hot demand last year and they've

(02:52):
probably got them all in stock right now, I'd say
it's pretty tough going.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, that's interesting. So why do you think hybrids are
doing well when all other parts of the market are down.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Mild hybrid's, petul hybrids don't have a road user.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Charge, right, and that's it, And I think, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I think he's just the voting with what they're buying, right,
and looking for things that they don't have to have
extra admin or extra costs. Yeah, and at the moment
that that's where that looks.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So let's flesh us out a little bit from here. Right,
it's going to be a tough winter. I think we
can all appreciate that. I see Infometrics is now pushing
out its forecast as of today, suggesting that interest rate
cuts might not be until February next year. If we
are in really difficult economic times until say February March
of next year, we don't see rate cuts until that point.

(03:41):
What will be the overall impact on the motor vehicle
selling industry.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, it's a tough time to I feel sorry for
importers and distributors and dealers at the moment. It's tough
because they've got a number of policies they've been juggling.
So in the new vehicle industry, they order vehicles six
to twelve months in advance, so the cars arriving now
they ordered a long time ago. We demand would have
looked it very different. But not only that, they've got
the Clean Car Standard and that that penalizes importers for

(04:11):
bringing in higher emission vehicles or gives credits for lower
emission vehicles. So at the moment they're trying to balance
the supply and the demand when thus applying a product
to a market, and it's tough. Previously, what I've heard
from from some of our members is that it feels
harder right now than it did during the GFC, And
I think the reason for that as were that we're

(04:34):
in higher interest rates and economic recessionary times. But we've
got new policies now too, and we've got climate policies.
And when consumers walk in and they want to buy
the higher remissing vehicles, how do you offset the penalties
associated with that without lifting vehicle prices. Because of vehicle
prices go up, people want to buy them even less.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, Hey, thanks for your time, Amy, We appreciate it.
That is Amy Wiley, who's the chief executive of the
Motor Industry Association.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
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Speaker 1 (05:05):
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