Ford’s Ranger led the way last month as new vehicle sales were subdued by the Covid-19 lockdown.

NEW vehicle registrations in August were 36.2 percent down on the same month of 2020, though the drop hardly dented a market pace that is well ahead of last year.

This from the Motor Industry Association, which represents new vehicle distributors.

Chief executive David Crawford says new vehicle sales were heavily affected by the countrywide Alert Level 4 snap lockdown in response to the Covid-19 Delta outbreak.

Last month 6746 passenger and light commercial vehicles were sold, so 3864 units down on August, 2020, tally of 10,610 vehicles.

Year to date, however, the MIA says 106,498 vehicles have been sold up to the end of last month. The count for the same period of last year was 76,572 units. The difference, then, is 29,926 units and the market is up 39.1 percent year-on-year.

Crawford says that with the lockdown effectively shutting down the second half of August for all but essential vehicles it has come as no surprise to the industry that last month’s tally was approximately 45 percent lower than those for May, June and July.

Key points highlighted by the MIA include that the Ford Ranger one-tonne utility continued to be the country’s top-selling vehicle, but the count was modest compared to recent months – just 671 units.

Two Toyota passenger cars – Corolla and RAV4 – respectively achieved second and third.

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 23 percent market share (1578 units), followed by Ford with 12 percent (817 units) and Mitsubishi holding third, with 673 sales equating to 10 percent share (673 units).

The MIA also notes that compact and medium sports utility vehicles continue to hold top rating with buyers and that reflected with strong August market share, with 22 and 16 percent share respectively. It also says 56 percent of new vehicles being sold year to date come from the small to medium categories.

The industry body also cited that 350 fully electric vehicles, 81 plug-in hybrids and 804 hybrid were registered in August.

The top selling EV was the Tesla Model 3, with 191 units, followed by the MG ZS (56) and the Hyundai Kona (31).

The top selling plug-in hybrid was the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, albeit with 28 units, followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (23) and the MG HS (12).

Toyota and its premium brand, Lexus, accounted for 85 percent of hybrid sales, with the Toyota RAV4 topping with 219 units followed by the Corolla (150) and Camry (94).

Toyota held the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 25 percent market share (1124 units) followed by Mitsubishi (11 percent, 513 units) then Suzuki (nine percent, 412 units).

Ford topped the commercial sector with 34 percent market share (729 units) followed by Toyota ( 21 percent, 454 units) and Mitsubishi (seven percent, 160 units).

The Toyota Hilux achieved 298 units and the Toyota Hiace claimed 136 units to position as the second and third most popular commercials last month.