Toyota wins in June as buyers rush to beat new fees

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

The Ford Ranger is still the most popular vehicle as of June, but the Hilux isn't far behind after a record-setting month.

The Motor Industry Association has confirmed June vehicle registration figures of 23,560 – a new monthly record.

That figure is a massive 95% higher than June 2022, and 2556 units more than the previous biggest month, which was March 2022 with 21,004 registrations. Last year, people rushed to buy new vehicles to avoid the introduction of Clean Car Discount (CCD) fees, replicated in June as the adjustments to the Discount came into play on 1 July.

Of the 23,560 June registrations, passenger vehicles accounted for 17,299 and commercial vehicles 6261. Those passenger registrations are the highest ever for a single month, 97.5% higher than the monthly average year to date, 80.9% higher than June 2022 and 45.7% (5425 units) higher than the prior record month for passenger sales (September 2021 at 11,874 units). On a year-to-date basis, passenger vehicles are up 8.3% (4680 units).

The Toyota Hilux was the most popular vehicle for the month of June, dethroning the dominant Ford Ranger.

Meanwhile, the commercial registrations came in second highest on the all-time record charts, 3561 units behind March 2022 (right before the CCD began penalising utes). June was 76.2% higher than the average monthly registrations year to date (3553 average units per month) and up 151.9% (3775 units) compared to June 2022. Commercial vehicles are still down on a year-to-date basis by about 6.5%.

Toyota also took the passenger sales crown with the RAV4.

Somewhat incredibly, the Ford Ranger was not the most popular vehicle overall for the month. That award goes to Toyota, which notches 1703 Hilux registrations. Next best was the Toyota RAV4 with 1496 registrations, followed by the Mitsubishi Triton with 1011 sales. The Ranger was fourth with 975 registrations. However, Ford still tops the year-to-date charts with the Ranger’s 5869 registrations to the Hilux’s 5580.

The second most popular passenger vehicle was the Tesla Model Y (756 units), followed by the MG ZS with 624 units (bearing in mind this figure includes all ZS variants, not just the EV or combustion model).

Tesla sold 756 Model Ys over June, headlining a record month for BEVs as well.

Light passenger battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) were up 91% on the monthly average for 2023 to date with 2599 registrations, along with 23 light commercial and 21 heavy commercial. Following the Model Y in the top three was the BYD Atto 3 (440 units) and the MG ZS EV (260 units). In total, BEVs made up 15% of the light passenger segment for June.

There were 1318 PHEV’s registered for the month of June (up 148% on average monthly YTD). The top models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (498 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (257 units) and the Kia Niro (135 units). PHEV’s made up 7.6% of the light passenger segment in June.

Registrations of hybrid vehicles (HEVs) were 4279 units for June (up 111% on average monthly YTD). The top models were the Toyota RAV4 (983 units), followed by the Toyota C-HR (261 units) and the Kia Niro (246 units). Hybrid vehicles made up 24.7% of the light passenger segment in June.

As for the market leaders, Toyota retained the passenger and SUV crown with 18.4% market share (3187 units) followed by Kia with 11.1% (1927 units) and then Mitsubishi with 10.9% share (1892 units).

Toyota also took the commercial lead with 34.4% share (2156 units) followed by Ford with 18% (1,128 units) and Mitsubishi third with 16.1% market share (1,011 units).