A total 13,870 sales of new vehicles for the month of October was up 16.8% on the same period last year but down on October returns of previous years.
The Motor Industry Association (MIA) says October is traditionally a strong month for new vehicle sales and while ahead of the same period 2020 they were well behind October returns in each of the years from 2016 to 2019 inclusive.
MIA chief executive David Crawford says stock levels remain low with shipments of new vehicles going through customs entry compliance and straight onto customers.
He says long waitlists remain for popular models and the international and local supply chain remains constrained due to the pandemic and microchip shortage.
Year to date there have been 136,886 registrations, an increase of 37,536 units (37.8%) compared to the first ten months of 2020.
There were 9162 passenger and SUV and 4708 commercial vehicles registered in the month of October. The Ford Ranger was once again the top model, followed by the Toyota RAV4 and the Toyota Corolla. The Toyota Hilux was down in fifth position.
Small to medium segments comprised 56% of sales year to date. For the month of October, the top segments were SUV medium with 22% market share, followed by Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4×4 with 17% and SUV compact with 16% market share.
Market leaders in October 2021
Toyota remains the overall market leader with 23% market share (3123 units), followed by Ford with 15% (2088 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 8% market share (1094 units).
BEVs, PHEVs and Hybrids
There were 485 light vehicle and four heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles registered in October. The top selling models were the Hyundai Kona (136 units) followed by the MG ZS (97 units) and the Tesla Model 3 (95 units).
There were 213 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered in October. The top selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (58 units) followed by the MG HS (54 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (17 units).
Hybrids continued their consistent strength with 1541 vehicles registered in the month of October. The top selling models were the Toyota RAV4 (738 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (197 units) and Toyota Highlander (140 units).
SUV and passenger vehicle sales October 2021
Toyota retained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 25% market share (2324 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 10% (961 units) and then Hyundai with 7% market share (642 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (861 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (742 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (693 units).
Commercial vehicle sales October 2021
Ford retained the market lead with 38% market share (1769 units) followed by Toyota with 17% (799 units) and Nissan third with 8% market share (383 units).
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot for the month of October as the bestselling commercial model with 34% share (1610 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 12% share (585 units) and the Nissan Navara in third place with 8% market share (383 units).
