September 2023 New Vehicle registrations soft

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive Aimee Wiley says that new vehicle registrations remain soft in September at 10,909 units.

The September result is 26.7% lower than September 2022 (14,878 units), 20.0% lower than the monthly average for 2022 (13,641 units) and 12.4% lower than the monthly average so far for 2023.

September’s result is likely caused by both tougher economic conditions and continued uncertainty for the future of the Clean Car Discount, currently hinging upon the upcoming election result. Such uncertainty considerably impacted consumer demand in September. It comes as no surprise that product attracting rebates accelerated significantly, whilst demand for product attracting fees slumped.

Key points

Top 3 overall market leaders in September 2023 are:

Toyota with 24.2% market share (2,644 units), followed by Ford with 10.3% (1,125 units) and Mitsubishi with 9.2% (1,006 units).

September registrations breakdown:

Light Passenger 8,150, Light Commercial 2,011 and

Heavy Commercial 748.

Total Industry by motive power for the month of September: 2,067 BEVs, 768 PHEVs, 2,190

Hybrids and 5,884 ICE vehicles.

The top three light passenger vehicles for the month were:

Tesla Model Y (697 units), Toyota

RAV4 (683 units), and Toyota Yaris Cross (316 units).

The top three light commercial vehicles for the month were:

Ford Ranger (605 units), Toyota

Hilux (540 units) and Mitsubishi Triton (198 units).

The top 3 segments in September were;

SUV Medium (28.9%), followed by SUV Compact

(18.9%) and 4x4 Pick Up/Chassis Cab (12.4%).

Light Passenger Vehicles (including SUVs)

Registrations

Passenger registrations of 8,150 are 23.1% (2,451 units) lower than September 2022. On a year-to date basis, passenger vehicles are down 6.3% (5,431 units) compared to the same period in 2022.

Segment leaders

Toyota retained the market lead for Passenger and SUV registrations in September with 23.1% market share (1,885 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 9.9% (808 units) and Tesla with 9.3% market share (760 units).

Top selling models

The top 3 for the month were the were Tesla Model Y (697 units), Toyota RAV 4 (683 units), and Toyota Yaris Cross (316 units).

Motive Power

There has been a significant shift toward electrification in September.

BEVs: 2,029 units, the top models were the Tesla Model Y (697 units), MG 4 (250 units) followed by BYD Atto 3 (136 units). A spike in consumer demand resulted in the BEV segment share jumping from an average of 13.9% (since January 2022) to a staggering 24.9% in September.

PHEVs: 768 units, the top 3 models were Mitsubishi Outlander (220 units), followed by Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (157 units) and the Mini Countryman (69 units). PHEVs comprised 9.4% of the light passenger segment in September, up from a prior average of 6.7%.

HEVs (Hybrids): 2,190 units, the top 3 models were Toyota RAV4 (495 units), followed by the Toyota Corolla (269 units) and the Ford Escape (154 units). HEVs comprised 26.9% of the light passenger segment in September, up from a prior average of 19.3%.

ICE: 3,163 units, comprising 38.8% of the light passenger segment in September.

Segmentation – what consumers are buying

The top three spots were the SUV medium segment (28.9% share), followed by the SUV compact segment (18.9% share) and small segment (7.9%). The small to medium segments comprised 64.4% of the total market.

Light & Heavy Commercial Vehicles

Registrations

Commercial registrations of 2,759 are 35.5% lower than September 2022 (1,518 units). On a year-todate basis registrations are 14.4 % down (5,312 units) compared to the same period in 2022.

Segment leaders

Toyota took the market lead with 27.5% market share (759 units) followed by Ford with 23.5% (647 units) and Mitsubishi third with 7.2% market share (198 units).

Top selling models

The top three models for the month of September were the Ford Ranger (605 units), followed by Toyota Hilux (540 units), and Mitsubishi Triton (198 units).