The Motor Industry Association is reporting record sales for new vehicles in 2021.

Chief Executive David Crawford says that there were 12,097 sales of new vehicles for the month of December 2021, making it the strongest month of December in record.

Registrations were up 44.3 per cent (3714 units) on the same month in 2020.

There were 165,287 registrations for 2021, an increase of 38.3 per cent (45,837 units) compared to 2020.

The previous strongest year was 2018 with 161,519 registrations.

The strongest December on record solidified 2021 as the strongest year for passenger and SUV's, second strongest for commercials and strongest year ever overall. For 2022 the orderbook remains strong with long wait lists for popular models.

The fleet mix is changing too, with more hybrids and EVs in the mix.

Motor Industry Association CEO David Crawford. Photo: Rosa Woods/Stuff

Key points

It was a record month of December with 7561 passenger and 4536 commercial vehicles registered for the month.

Vehicles with some form of electrification grew strongly in 2021 with 6899 BEVs, 2461 PHEVs and 13,794 hybrid vehicles registered for the year compared to 1554 BEVs, 756 PHEVs and 8667 Hybrids in 2020.

Small to medium segments comprised 56 per cent of sales for the year. For the month of December, the top segments were SUV medium with 19 per cent market share, followed by SUV compact with 17 per cent market share and Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 with 16 per cent share.

For the month of December, the Ford Ranger was once again the top model (778 units), followed by the Mitsubishi Triton (757 units), the Toyota Hilux (644 units) and then the Tesla Model 3 in fourth spot (619 units).

For the year, the top models were the Ford Ranger (12,580 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux (8430 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (6506 units).

Market leaders in December / 2021

For the month of December Toyota remained the overall market leader with 21 per cent market share (2526 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 14 per cent (1699 units) and Ford in third spot with nine per cent market share (1076 units).

For the year, the top three market leaders were Toyota with 18 per cent market share (29,258 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 12 per cent (20,140 units) and Ford with 10 per cent market share (17,286 units, of which the Ford Ranger comprised 12,580 units).

BEVs, PHEVs and Hybrids / 2021

There were 1133 light vehicle and 10 heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles registered in December. The top selling models were the Tesla Model 3 (619 units) followed by the Hyundai Kona (138 units) and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (70 units).

For the year the top selling models were the Tesla Model 3 (3271 units) followed by the MG ZS (872 units) and Hyundai Kona (825 units).

There were 149 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered in December. The top selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (40 units) followed by the MG HS (39 units) and then the Toyota Prius (22 units).

Hybrids continued their consistent strength with 1235 vehicles registered in the month of December.

The top selling hybrid models for year were the Toyota RAV4 (4596 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (1987 units) and Toyota Highlander (942 units).

SUV and passenger vehicle sales December / 2021

Toyota retained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 19 per cent market share (1,474 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 12 per cent (907 units) and then Hyundai with nine per cent market share (649 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Tesla Model 3 (619 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (533 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (509 units).

For the year the top selling passenger and SUV models were the Mitsubishi Outlander (6,506 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (6212 units) and the Mitsubishi ASX (5,036 units). For the first time a fully electric vehicle made it to the top five for the year with the Tesla Model 3 in the fifth spot (3,271 units).

Commercial vehicle sales December / 2021

For the month of December, Toyota regained the market lead with 23 per cent market share (1052 units) followed by Ford with 18 per cent (824 units) and Mitsubishi third with 17 per cent market share (792 units).

For the year, Ford retained the commercial market lead with 26 per cent (13,744 units), followed by Toyota with 21 per cent (11,375 units) and Mitsubishi with 10 per cent (5558 units).