Zap gone from EV market, but fossil fuel sales also desultory … unless it was a ute.

NEW electric vehicles that were achieving hundreds of monthly registrations last year now holding sector dominance with double figure counts is one indicator of how far the new vehicle market slumped in February.

Fossil fuelled proportionally doing little better is another.

That’s suggested in data for last month shared by the Motor Industry, which represents all new vehicle distributors here.

The light passenger accrual has been confirmed at 5951 units, the lowest result in 11 years. 

With commercial vehicles, which include one-tonne utes, added, the count lifts to 9663 vehicles, still a light result. 

The count for January, itself a depressed month, was 2986 units higher. 

The MIA says only heavy vehicles showed up well, but even then the count was just 660 units.

The electric vehicle showing suggests fallout from the loss of the sales-inducing Clean Car rebate has been severe. 

Vehicles that were eligible for the Government incentive of just over $7000 for any new car costing $80,000 or less still mainly commanded strongest appeal, but with desultory counts.

The highest seller, albeit with just 145 registrations, was the Tesla Model Y (above), while the BYD Atto 3 second-placed with 23 registrations. Both were massive sellers in the past previous 18 months, usually achieving hundreds of registrations. 

Third best selling EV last month was the Ford Mustang Mach-E, with 20 units, then the Kia EV6 on 17. Next was a high-end electric well above the rebate consideration, Audi’s $195k and upward E-Tron GT, which took 14 registrations.

Plug-in hybrids, a genre set to be hit by Road User Charges from April 1, did not better. The top type in the category was Mitsubishi Outlander, on strength of 42 registrations. The smaller, technically similar Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross was second, on 22. Mini Countryman (16), Porsche Cayenne (12) and Land Rover Defender (eight) followed up.

The mild hybrid quarter was stronger, but wholly Toyota filled. The RAV4 maintained its usual No.1 status, with 444 units, followed by Highlander (154), Corolla Cross (131), Corolla (94) and Yaris Cross (83).

RAV4’s total count of 467 examples made it the best selling car of the month, followed by Suzuki Swift on 227 then the Ford Everest sports utility, with 220.

Diesel one-tonne utes, a type now freed from CO2 penalties, rolled on, with Ford Ranger dominant as usual, with 956 units, followed again by Toyota HiLux (692), Mitsubishi Triton (437) and Nissan Navara (219). 

Toyota was, as always, the month’s dominant brand, with 21 percent share. Second was Ford, then Mitsubishi.

MIA chief executive Aimee Wiley says for overall registrations, last month was 1.28 percent higher than February 2023 - a month severely impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. If data is adjusted to reflect this, then last month was worse - the lowest February result since 2015.