SUV sales stay strong

Medium-sized SUVs have gained market share during the first five months of this year compared to the whole of 2021 when it comes to sales of new vehicles in the light fleet.

Statistics published by the Motor Industry Association show that in 2021 they represented 26.9 per cent of light-vehicle registrations. However, up to and including May 2022, they claimed a market share of 31 per cent.

Conversely, registrations of small SUVs have dropped back from 33.7 to 29 per cent over the same timescale.

When it comes to light cars, they have increased in market share – from 8.6 to 11.3 per cent – while small cars have dropped from 8.4 to 6.1 per cent. 

Other segments of the light fleet have remained relatively stable for their respective market share when comparing the whole of last year to the first five months of 2022.

The next biggest variation is seen in medium-sized passenger vehicles – their share of the market has increased from 4.8 to 5.3 per cent.

The top five year-to-date registration totals are 14,482 of medium-sized SUVs, 13,554 small SUVs, 5,629 large SUVs, 5,259 light cars and 2,867 small cars.

So far this year compared to the first five months of 2021, sales of new SUVs account for 52.2 per cent of the market – up by 8.4 per cent, light commercials 28.3 per cent – down by 11.4 per cent, passenger cars 15.7 per cent – up by 2.1 per cent and heavy commercials 3.1 per cent – down by one per cent.

Buyer types

There were 2,581 passenger vehicles registered in May. Of these 1,355 were private sales. As for SUVs, 4,189 units out of 7,975 were business registrations. 

And 1,801 sales out of 2,176 light-commercial registrations were to businesses as private sales of utes nosedived.