Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that April 2021 was the strongest April on record for sales of new vehicles, which were boosted by arrivals of new stock.
Comparing April this year to April 2020 is a statistical challenge due to April 2020 being in full lockdown.
April 2021 registrations were 13,133 units compared to just 1,039 units for April 2020. Year to date the market is up 62.4% (21,140 units) compared to the first quarter of 2020.
A more useful comparison is the first four months of 2018, the strongest year for new vehicle sales. Year to date registrations of 2021 sales were up 8.3% (4,196 units) on the first four months of 2018, largely due to long waiting lists being filled as shipments arrive.
Key points
Overall, April 2021 registrations of 13,133 vehicles were up 12,094 units on the same month in 2020.
There were 177 pure electric vehicles, 126 PHEV’s and 1102 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.
Registration of 8,823 passenger and SUVs for April 2021 were up 1,148% (8,116 units) on April 2020, while commercial vehicle registrations of 4,310 were up 1,198% (3,978 units) compared to April 2020. This is a record month of April for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
The top three models for the month of April were the Ford Ranger (1,026 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (781 units) with the Kia Stonic in third place (625 units).
Market leaders in April / 2021
Toyota remains the overall market leader with 17% market share (2,235 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 12% (1,589 units) and Ford in third spot with 11% market share (1,419 units).
SUV and passenger vehicle sales April / 2021
Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 14% market share (1,260 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 13% (1,187 units) and then Kia with 12% market share (1,090 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Kia Stonic (625 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (531 units) and the Toyota RAV4 (477 units).
Commercial vehicle sales April / 2021
Ford regained the market lead with 27% market share (1,162 units) followed by Toyota with 23% (975 units) and Mitsubishi third with 9% market share (402 units).
The Ford Ranger regained the top spot for the month of April as the bestselling commercial model with 24% share (1,026 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 18% share (781 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 8% market share (364 units).
Segmentation – Smaller SUVs hold their share
The top spot for April 2021 went to the SUV Compact vehicles with 26% share followed by SUV Medium also with 17% market share and then the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 17% share.
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