The Motor Industry Association has formalised the preliminary registration figures for October detailed earlier this week.
It was a healthy month overall for the new-vehicle sector, with 14,736 registrations representing a 5% year-on-year lift and adding to an overall year-to-date rise of 0.3%.
“October registrations benefited from strong deliveries of back orders for vehicles with electrification in their drive train,” says the MIA’s Mark Stockdale.
A commendable 4350 electrified passenger and commercial vehicles were registered in October, adding up to almost 30% of the monthly registration total.
The Ford Ranger led the month with 1491 registrations, trailed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (1030) and Toyota RAV4 (746). Both the Outlander and RAV4 can be purchased with electrified powertrains.
The top selling fully electric vehicle was the BYD Atto 3 (206 registrations); the new-to-market Chinese brand taking just a few months to secure the top spot.
It led the MG ZS EV (169) and Tesla Model Y (167), in a market that continues to be heavily influenced by which brands can bring in vehicle supply consistently.
Things were less tight in the plug-in hybrid segment, where the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Outlander PHEVs took honours with 409 and 313 registrations, respectively. The MG HS plug-in was third, with 83 units.
Toyota didn’t quite sweep the hybrid segment top three. It scooped first and second with its RAV4 (599) and Yaris Cross (237) hybrids, with third going to the Honda Jazz e:HEV (231).
With Honda selling a total of 267 Jazz hatchbacks in October, this makes the e:HEV its most popular trim level by far.
Year-to-date Toyota has a comfortable lead, holding 18% market share with its 24,091 registrations across passenger and commercial sectors. Mitsubishi is second on 15%, with Ford some distance behind in third on 8%.
In passenger vehicle sales alone it is neck-and-neck between Mitsubishi and Toyota; the two brands boasting 14,970 (Mitsubishi) and 14,152 (Toyota) registrations respectively with two months to go.
