Rental registrations drive new vehicle sales higher in November

Total new vehicle registrations for November came to 14,519 units, up from October’s 12,944 units. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Sales of new vehicles in November were boosted by a surge in rental registrations.

There were 4466 monthly rental registrations for the month – the highest number in the past four years.

Total new vehicle registrations for November came to 14,519 units, up from October’s 12,944 units.

November registrations remain 7.1 per cent lower compared with November 2022 (15,621 units) and 11.1 per cent lower than November 2021 (16,327 units).

On a year-to-date basis, 2023 is 8.9 per cent lower than 2022 (13,637 units) and 9.0 per cent lower than 2021 (13,870 units).

Of the 14,519 new vehicle registrations in November, 7237 were for internal combustion engine vehicles (49.8 per cent share), followed by 3426 hybrids (23.6 per cent share), 2692 battery electric vehicles (18.5 per cent share) and 1164 plug-in hybrid EVs (8.0 per cent share).

New vehicle sales have been steadily improving since a significant drop-off in July after buyers raced to beat the Labour government of the time’s clean car policy changes the month before.

June 2023 was the biggest month on record for new vehicle sales (23,560 units), before that number plunged to just 6202 in July.

“Light commercial registrations continue to be significantly impacted with savvy consumers awaiting the upcoming removal of clean car discount fees,” Motor Industry Association chief executive Aimee Wiley said.

National has promised to axe the scheme for discounts on electric vehicles and the ute tax within its first 100 days in office.

The clean car discount scheme, first introduced in July 2021, taxes high-emission vehicles in order to subsidise low-emission vehicles.

Toyota was the market leader for November sales with 24.9 per cent market share (3615 units), followed by Ford with 13.0 per cent (1894 units) and Mitsubishi with 8.0 per cent (1160 units).

The Tesla Model Y was the most popular battery electric vehicle with 544 units (21 per cent share), followed by MG 4 (469 units, 18.1 per cent share) and BYD ATTO 3 (338 units, 13.1 per cent share).