The December Numbers Are In – A Record Year For New Vehicle Registrations

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that there were 12,097 sales of new vehicles for the month of December 2021, making it the strongest month of December in record. Registrations were up 44.3% (3,714 units) on the same month in 2020.

There were 165,287 registrations for 2021, an increase of 38.3% (45,837 units) compared to 2020. The previous strongest year was 2018 with 161,519 registrations.

The strongest December on record solidified 2021 as the strongest year for passenger and SUV’s, second strongest for commercials and strongest year ever overall. For 2022 the orderbook remains strong with long wait lists for popular models.

The fleet mix is changing too, with more hybrids and EVs in the mix.

Key points

• It was a record month of December with 7,561 passenger and 4,536 commercial vehicles registered for the month.
• Vehicles with some form of electrification grew strongly in 2021 with 6,899 BEVs, 2,461 PHEVs and 13,794 hybrid vehicles registered for the year compared to 1,554 BEVs, 756 PHEVs and 8,667 Hybrids in 2020.
• Small to medium segments comprised 56% of sales for the year. For the month of December, the top segments were SUV medium with 19% market share, followed by SUV compact with 17% market share and Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 with 16% share.
• For the month of December, the Ford Ranger was once again the top model (778 units), followed by the Mitsubishi Triton (757 units), the Toyota Hilux (644 units) and then the Tesla Model 3 in fourth spot (619 units).
• For the year, the top models were the Ford Ranger (12,580 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux (8,430 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (6,506 units).

Market leaders in December / 2021

For the month of December Toyota remained the overall market leader with 21% market share (2,526 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 14% (1,699 units) and Ford in third spot with 9% market share (1,076 units).

For the year, the top three market leaders were Toyota with 18% market share (29,258 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 12% (20,140 units) and Ford with 10% market share (17,286 units, of which the Ford Ranger comprised 12,580 units).

BEVs, PHEVs and Hybrids / 2021

There were 1,133 light vehicle and 10 heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles registered in December. The top selling models were the Tesla Model 3 (619 units) followed by the Hyundai Kona (138 units) and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (70 units).

For the year the top selling models were the Tesla Model 3 (3,271 units) followed by the MG ZS (872 units) and Hyundai Kona (825 units).

There were 149 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered in December. The top selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (40 units) followed by the MG HS (39 units) and then the Toyota Prius (22 units).

Hybrids continued their consistent strength with 1,235 vehicles registered in the month of December.

The top selling hybrid models for year were the Toyota RAV4 (4,596 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (1,987 units) and Toyota Highlander (942 units).

SUV and passenger vehicle sales December / 2021

Toyota retained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 19% market share (1,474 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 12% (907 units) and then Hyundai with 9% market share (649 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Tesla Model 3 (619 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (533 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (509 units).

For the year the top selling passenger and SUV models were the Mitsubishi Outlander (6,506 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (6,212 units) and the Mitsubishi ASX (5,036 units). For the first time a fully electric vehicle made it to the top five for the year with the Tesla Model 3 in the fifth spot (3,271 units).

Commercial vehicle sales December / 2021

For the month of December, Toyota regained the market lead with 23% market share (1,052 units) followed by Ford with 18% (824 units) and Mitsubishi third with 17% market share (792 units).

For the year, Ford retained the commercial market lead with 26% (13,744 units), followed by Toyota with 21% (11,375 units) and Mitsubishi with 10% (5,558 units).

© Scoop Media