Although it may not be surprising to see that Ford is still shifting piles of RangersMarch registration numbers show that EVs are not that far behind.
According to the Motor Industry Association, passenger car and SUV registrations rose 4% (444 units) in March 2022 to a total of 11,626 units, while light commercial vehicle registrations fell 55.5% (5451 units) compared to last year . That huge change is due to last year’s change to the Clean Car Discount, which began penalizing large emitters such as cars from April last year.
Year-on-year comparisons illustrate the effect government policy can have on changing purchasing behaviour. Light commercial vehicle sales in March 2022 were the strongest ever, but have since struggled to regain strong performance due to the impact of the CCD fees most of these vehicles now charge, said Mark Stockdale, chief technical adviser to MIA.
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The Ford Ranger is as popular as ever, according to the March registration figures.
Ford sold 1,333 Rangers in March, well ahead of the next best, Toyota’s Hilux (834 units). Toyota has announced it it doesn’t want to bring in too many Hiluxes to keep fleet emissions under control.
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Speak against StuffLala said the brand believes sales of its ever-popular Hilux should not exceed 30% of its total deliveries.
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Toyota is limiting the number of Hiluxes it brings into the country to control emissions from its fleet.
“[We are] will only bring in a fixed number of Hiluxes. And when those Hiluxes are assigned to customers, they’re gone. We could bring in more, but we’re not going to,’ Lala said.
“…On the new car side, we need to have a balanced product portfolio to stay on our CO2 trajectory and satisfy customers,” Lala added.
“To do that, we looked at our mix and went ‘we don’t believe Hilux can exceed more than about 27 to 30% of our total unit’.”
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The Tesla Model Y again performed well as the best-selling BEV.
Meanwhile, 2,656 BEVs, 515 PHEVs, and 2,503 hybrid vehicles were registered in March. Of those BEVs, the Tesla Model Y was the top seller and the third strongest of the month with 761 units shifted. It was followed by the BYD Atto 3 (617 units) and the MG ZS EV (307 units).
Interestingly, for the year to date, the Atto 3 is selling fractionally better than the Model Y, with 995 registrations to 991.
Tesla typically gets large shipments of vehicles from time to time, while Toyota brings in models all the time. That’s why Tesla sometimes has huge enrollment spikes.
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Mitsubishi’s plug-in Eclipse Cross was March’s strongest PHEV.
For the month of March, 515 PHEVs were registered. The top models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (176 units) followed by the Kia Sorento (131 units) and the MG HS (31 units).
Hybrid vehicle (HEV) registrations remained strong with 2503 vehicles registered in March. The top models were the Toyota RAV4 (455 units), followed by the Honda Jazz (245 units) and the Suzuki Swift (211 units).
Finally, Toyota retook the market leader for passenger cars and SUVs with 14% of the market, followed by Kia with 11% and Hyundai with 10%. As you might expect, Ford led the commercial market with 33% of the share, followed by Toyota with 25% and then Mitsubishi with 7%.