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Lee Marshall: Motor Trade Association CEO on affordable EVs driving up car sales · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talkst B. Follow
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Dickens, all right, so cars, we've got the car
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  Speaker 2: figures out for July and the car sales are up
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  Speaker 2: and you can thank CHAPVS for that. The latest numbers
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  Speaker 2: from the MTA, the Motor Trade Association, shows we bought
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  Speaker 2: nearly fifteen percent more new cars than we did last year.
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  Speaker 2: Problem was in commercial sales down forty six percent. It's
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  Speaker 2: all in passenger cars and the brands are what's interesting
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  Speaker 2: byd sales up one hundred and forty three percent to
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  Speaker 2: six hundred and twenty two. Chinese EV brand Cherry is
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  Speaker 2: up two hundred and six percent, and Tessa, which is
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  Speaker 2: really expensive car, they're the big winner. Sales are up
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty two percent on last year. So
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  Speaker 2: not everybody struggling. So Lee Marshall is the CEO from
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  Speaker 2: the Motor Trade Association, joins in. Now, hell it le ahi,
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  Speaker 2: good evening, So go the evs saving the motor trade.
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  Speaker 3: Something like that. And I mean you've called out all
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  Speaker 3: the numbers so so I don't have to, which is good.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think what we're really seeing is the
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  Speaker 3: market dynamics are really shifting when you look at new
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  Speaker 3: vehicle registrations at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: I've got some questions for you. Is this a demand
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  Speaker 2: for cheap evs? Because some of these evs, I know,
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  Speaker 2: I've got a MG four by the way. You know,
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  Speaker 2: some of these these evs are actually really really cheap
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  Speaker 2: and actually really quite good. So is this demand for
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  Speaker 2: cheap evs or evs overall?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's I think well, I think it's a
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  Speaker 3: demand for EV's overall. But I think you've got a
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  Speaker 3: few different factors that are all playing into each other
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  Speaker 3: and making something of a perfect storm. You've got, of course,
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  Speaker 3: the fuel crisis making fuel more expensive than it ever
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  Speaker 3: has been, which happens to coincide completely separately with a
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  Speaker 3: used vehicle market out of Japan that we've we've relied
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  Speaker 3: on as a country for many, many years. They've got
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  Speaker 3: a lot of competition for product overseas nowadays, meaning the
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  Speaker 3: cost of used imports has never been higher. Then. Factor
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  Speaker 3: on top of that the deluge of Chinese brands that
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  Speaker 3: we've had on our market. I mean, you mentioned some
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  Speaker 3: of them, but I mean if you go even Further,
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  Speaker 3: you've got businesses like Jaco and Dongfeng xpaying a Motor,
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  Speaker 3: Zeka g Lee Leap motor. Twelve months ago, none of
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  Speaker 3: those really existed, and most of the products that they
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  Speaker 3: have is EVS and a lot of it is very
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  Speaker 3: competitive in price. So you put all three factors together
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  Speaker 3: and it really just creates a perfect storm where I
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  Speaker 3: think a lot of people are just asking for themselves reasonably.
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  Speaker 3: Why wouldn't I So.
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  Speaker 2: It used to be like the trusty old Suzuki Swept,
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  Speaker 2: it used to be brands like Suzuki and Masa. But
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  Speaker 2: they're dropping sales way up to forty percent, So what
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  Speaker 2: are they doing wrong?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's all about product mix. I think one
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  Speaker 3: of the things that's happened with the fuel crisis is
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  Speaker 3: it's really shone a light on household expenditure that gets
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  Speaker 3: dedicated to fuel. Now, if you go back two or
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  Speaker 3: three years ago, there was a real cost impediment to
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  Speaker 3: taking on an electric vehicle. But if you look at
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  Speaker 3: what gets solved today, I think actually arguably that's gone.
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  Speaker 3: As have questions around quality, as have questions around reliability,
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  Speaker 3: if not addressed directly addressed through very aggressive and very
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  Speaker 3: long new vehicle warranties that are in place. I think
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  Speaker 3: that's put a lot of pressure on the incumbents. And
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  Speaker 3: when you do look at Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Mazda, Hyundai, Subaru,
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  Speaker 3: not one of them is less than fifteen percent down
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  Speaker 3: in the last three months in a market that's grown
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  Speaker 3: by fifteen percent.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Lee, I thank you for your turn today,
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  Speaker 2: Lee Marshall, who is the METI Trade Association CEO. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, if you're wondering what the most popular passenger
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  Speaker 2: carr is, it's a good old Ram fours. If you're
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  Speaker 2: driving a Red four, you're in the number one. And
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  Speaker 2: in terms of commercial vehicles, it's still the forward ranger.
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