New-car registrations dip

Registrations of new passenger vehicles dipped slightly – by 12.2 per cent – in January when compared to the same month of 2023.

Last month's total came in at 8,116 units versus 9,245 in January last year. The clean car discount, which provided incentives for fully electric vehicles and some low-emitting models, was canned by the government at the end of December.

January’s top new car was Toyota’s RAV4 with 619 units for year-on-year jump of 60.4 per cent from 386 units. Two Mitsubishis were second and third – the ASX with 438 and Outlander 430 for increases of 361.1 and 42.9 per cent respectively.

The top five was completed by Kia’s Seltos on 310 units – up by 108.1 per cent, and the Ford Everest with 304 – up by171.4 per cent.

Other notable year-on-year shifts were record by Toyota’s Highlander – up by 607.1 per cent to 297, Nissan’s Qashqai – up 180.8 per cent to 219. 

On the flipside, the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross fell by 50.7 per cent to 207, the MG ZS by 58.1 to 130, Toyota’s Corolla dropped by 42.4 per cent to 125 and Kia’s Niro fell by 81.1 per cent to 64.

January’s top five new-car marques were Toyota with 1,632 registrations – up by six per cent, Mitsubishi on 1,143 – up by 16.5 per cent, Kia with 828 – down 44.9 per cent, Suzuki on 538 – down 6.4 per cent and Ford with 443 – up by 38 per cent.

Notable year-on-year market shifts were experienced by MG – down 53.7 per cent to 196, BYD – down 82.9 per cent to 40 and Tesla – down 85.7 per cent to 27.