Passenger car sales the lowest in a decade

Damien O’Carroll

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New car sales continue to be sluggish at the start of 2024, with last month seeing an even bigger slump to be the worst February in more than a decade for passenger vehicle registrations.

Just 5951 passenger vehicle were registered in February, the lowest since February 2013, which is actually an improvement on the same month in 2023 of 1.28%. However, February 2023 sales were heavily impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle and were actually 23.7% down on 2022.

The Ford Ranger continued its domination of the new vehicle sales race in February.

The effects of the cyclone also means that year-to-date new vehicle registrations are up 1.32% on 2023 so far, but 14.1% lower than 2022 and 18.2% lower than 2021.

In terms of passenger vehicles, medium SUVs still lead the way (2256 units), while the Toyota RAV4 leads the passenger vehicle pack overall with 467 units sold. The Suzuki Swift (227) and a surprise appearance by the Ford Everest (220) round out the top three.

Toyota's RAV4 was the best-selling passenger vehicle overall, as well as being the best-selling hybrid.

The top-selling EV for February was the Tesla Model Y (145 units), with the BYD Atto 3 and Ford Mustang Mach-E trailing in a distant second and third, with just 23 and 20 units respectively. Plug-in hybrids fared even worse, with the Mitsubishi Outlander racking up 42 registrations, while the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (22 units) and Mini Countryman (16 units) rounded out a slim top three.

Toyota ruled the hybrid roost, taking out the top five sales spots with the RAV4 (444), Highlander (154), Corolla Cross (131), Corolla (94) and Yaris Cross (83).

The Tesla Model Y led the meagre EV registrations for February.

While Passenger vehicles continued their slump in sales in February, commercial vehicle sales are stronger, with light commercial registrations of 3052 units being 13.8% up on February 2023 (but still 28.9% down on 2022), while heavy commercial vehicles had their best February on record with 660 registrations.

The Ford Ranger dominated light commercial sales yet again, with 956 units registered in February, while the Toyota Hilux (692) and Mitsubishi Triton (437) followed.

Overall, Toyota dominated new vehicle sales in February with a 21% share of the market (2027 units), followed by Ford with 15.2% (1469) and Mitsubishi with 10.5% (1017).