New vehicle registrations for May similar to April

A total of 10,251 new vehicles were registered in May, up by just 65 units compared with May last year. The Motor Industry Association (MIA) is suggesting a stabilisation in monthly demand. That said, total new vehicle sales for the year of 51,621 represents a three percent decline compared with the same period in 2024.

Association chief executive, Aimee Wiley, says while the year-on-year result for May shows encouraging signs, the overall market is yet to regain momentum.

“We probably still have a period of subdued activity to come, but these May numbers do offer some cause for optimism and hopes for better times ahead.”

For cars and SUVs, new registrations totalled 6817, a slight improvement on the 6369 registered in May 2024. Sales of light commercial (3016 units) vehicles were a little softer than those of a year ago (3154 units).

Once again, Toyota’s RAV4 ruled the passenger vehicle roost for the month with 666 sales. Next was Mitsubishi ASX with 457 units sold and in third spot Ford Everest on 277 sales.

The RAV4 is also the market leader on a year-to-date basis, with 3806 registrations.

The Ford Ranger held onto top spot in the light commercial category with 1051 sales and a 35 per cent market share, followed by Toyota Hilux with 910 sales and a 30 percent share of the market.

Year-to-date Ranger has edged ahead of Hilux with 3510 vs 3438 registrations in total.

Sales of new battery electric light passenger vehicles (BEV) remained relatively steady over the month, with 447 registrations. That’s virtually the same as the figure for April (442).

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) continue to be popular with 2883 registrations while there were 351 sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) compared with 177 sales in April.