Electrics up in May

About 1219 new battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 727 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and 2534 hybrid vehicles were registered in May.

So says Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Aimee Wiley, noting that May 2023 registrations of 13,354 held steady at just 0.1% (17 units) up on May 2022 when registrations were lower than usual due to the introduction of the Clean Car Discount (CCD) which sees changes implemented from July 1 this year.

The BYD Atto 3 (223 units) and MG ZS (204 units) led the BEV May registrations, with Tesla recording 174 new cars (mainly the Model Y) and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (120 units).

There were 1,171 light passenger vehicle BEVs and 46 light commercial plus two heavy commercial vehicle BEVs registered in May.

Top PHEV models included the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (285 units), the Mitsubishi Outlander (180 units) and the Ford Escape (61 units) while the main hybrid models were the Toyota RAV4 (698 units), the Honda Jazz (178 units) and the Hyundai Tucson (175 units).

MIA says non-plugin hybrid registrations remain strong, up 877 units on May last year, and commercial vehicle sales surged in May 2023, this result likely to be repeated in June on the back of further increases to CCD fees from July 1. 

”On a year-to-date basis, commercial vehicles remain down 23.5% (5449 units) due the impact of the Clean Car Discount fees on light commercial vehicles.”

MIA says the trend to the smaller end of vehicle size continues with 59% of vehicles registered for the month being medium or smaller.

Electric private passenger registrations were up 18.1% in May 2023 on the same month last year (from 116 to 137) but dropped on year-to-date (YTD) comparisons (1305 to 657 or 49.7% down).

And non-private electric passenger registrations rose 30.8% in May comparisons (107 to 140) but declined YTD by 19.2% (886 to 716).

In the popular SUV category, electrics rose 129% in May comparisons (207 to 474) and 205.6% YTD (960 to 2934) in the private category, and 156.1% (164 to 420) and 201% (828 to 2412) respectively in the non-private category.

Except for heavy commercial vehicles, registrations of petrol and diesel vehicles were generally down, especially in YTD comparisons.