Surge for electric marques

There were 10,940 new passenger vehicles registered in August, which was up 137.4 per cent from 4,609 in the same month of last year when a national Covid lockdown hurt sales.

All-electric brands featured prominently last month with Tesla having two models in the top three best-sellers and newcomer BYD celebrating its first month of business by finishing eighth on the marques’ ladder.

The top model was Tesla’s Model 3, pictured, with 745 units for a 6.8 per cent share of the market – it was also a massive climb from its 190 sales a year ago.

Mitsubishi’s Outlander was second with 677, up from 157 in August last year, and Tesla’s Model Y was third on 581. 

Completing the top five was the BYD Atto 3 on 448 units after making its debut on the market and Toyota’s RAV4 with 437.

The surge in overall sales year-on-year is partly because of the country being put into lockdown for two weeks last August.

The Outlander has the most registrations year-to-date at 6,273 units for 8.3 per cent of the market. The RAV4 is second on 3,964 and 5.3 per cent, followed by the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross with 2,442 and 3.2 per cent.

Toyota was the top marque last month with its 1,630 cars registered accounting for 14.9 per cent of the market and representing a climb of 45.5 per cent from August 2021.

Next on the list was Kia with 1,574 units and a 14.4 per cent market share. Mitsubishi, Tesla and Suzuki completed the top five with 1,365, 1,326 and 720 units respectively.

Mitsubishi continues to lead the marques’ ladder year to date with 11,557 units and a 15.3 per cent market share.

Toyota is second with 10,429 registrations and 13.8 per cent, followed by Kia on 8,381 and 11.1 per cent. Hyundai is on 5,452 and 7.2 per cent and Suzuki has registered 5,272 so far this year for seven per cent of all activity.