Speaking to GoAuto on the sidelines of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association’s annual convention in Melbourne this week, Mr Weber said the FCAI – which is responsible for reporting the number of new vehicle registrations by dealers and direct sales by manufacturers throughout Australia – was aware of pre- and post-reporting of vehicles at the end of critical periods.
However, Mr Weber said the statistics, which are heavily relied upon by industry and government and are provided electronically to the FCAI on a daily basis, still provided an accurate reflection of the size of the new-vehicle market in Australia – currently at around 1.2 million units per annum.
Big picture: According to the FCAI, a new vehicle sale can only ever be reported once, no matter when this occurs. This ensures market statistics and the contribution the industry makes to Australia’s economy are accurate.
“We want the data to be as accurate as possible. We know that some cars are pre-reported, and we know some are post-reported,” he said.
“But the reality is, it’s a totality of the market. If a car is reported in a different month, it can only ever be reported once, and in a 1.2-million market you need to put the under-reporting or over-reporting into perspective.
“We obviously want to have as much clarity and accuracy in the system as possible. But at the end of the day, if you are thinking about the contribution of the new motor vehicle market to the economy, a few cars here and there are not going to have a substantial impact on that.”
Mr Weber said that although the FCAI was constantly evaluating the new-vehicle sales reporting process, there were no plans for reform.
“We constantly evaluate the system, and look at it. But there’s nothing at the moment, no,” he said.
Mr Weber also said the current system, which only includes those brands that are members of the FCAI (meaning a few, such as Tesla Motors, are not included), was better than the alternative, which would mean relying on state and territory government departments to provide registration data.
“The current system is the best one that’s available. Other jurisdictions around the world, especially in unitary governments, go to the registration system,” he said.
“With the states and territories in Australia, if you want to do that, go down that path, it’s going to take you a lag of some days, if not up to a month.
“The reporting system we have at the moment is the best one. Every car has a VIN (vehicle identification number), a unique identifier, the VIN can only be registered once. So the sales are recorded on the VIN basis.”
Asked about the accuracy of the data when brands such as Tesla were not included, Mr Weber said: “We can only put in the data that we’re provided. We can’t make people contribute their data. The vast majority of the market is incorporated into VFACTS and we do the best we can with the data we’re actually provided.”
The FCAI chief’s comments follow similar sentiments expressed late last month by Hyundai Motor Company Australia (HMCA) chief operating officer Scott Grant, who defended the process of pre-reporting new-car sales.
“Pre-reported cars – does it really matter? No, I don’t think it matters one iota because each car can only ever be sold once,” said Mr Grant, who went on to explain that considering dealers were given cash incentives to reach sales targets, it was understandable they pre-register cars in order to meet particular quotas.
“It is as simple as a dealer has a target of 100 cars, they might have sold 97 and they are three away. At 100 they are incentivised and they pick up whatever (bonus) they get,” he said.
“As a dealer … I report 97 and I miss out on $20,000, or I report 100 and I pick up my $20,000. I’m going to sell those three cars next week and it starts again. What’s the big deal?
“Pre-reported cars is just a numbers game and it’s not that big a deal. The customer doesn’t lose out. It’s a complication we could do without as an industry but it’s an incentive game.”
Having said that, Mr Grant said he believes Australia will eventually move to a more accurate system of reporting.
“I think it’s inevitable that in time the government departments in each state that collect the registration data will need to come together on a national basis and that will form the accurate register of how many motor cars we’ve sold,” he said.
“At the moment the industry is open to our declaration of what we sold and you put it all together and that’s the size of the industry.
“We know there have been some interesting and public cases around pre-reported cars and other issues from different brands.”
By Terry Martin
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