Happy New Year and as we enter 2023 and the first 231 cars are being delivered – it is as good a time as any to look back and review the car sales market in 2022, with all figures from SIMI.
Let’s start with looking at December, which traditionally is and predictably was a very quiet month for car registrations. Just 209 cars were registered in December 2022, 46% fewer than in December 2021. A huge portion of the cars registered were from Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai. These three brands made up almost half of all the cars registered in December 2022.
But what about the year in total. Well we finished the year on 105,253 units, almost the same as 2021, just a .31% increase on 2021. But you could see the effect of delayed deliveries, with 40% more cars handed over in March 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. August 2022 saw 36% more cars handed over and September 42% compared to the same months in 2021 – showing that the traditional January and July peaks, while still in place, were being diluted into other months by delivery delays.
Toyota were the big winners overall in 2022, walking away with the sales title for the year with 15.25% Market Share, a 23% increase on their 2021 sales. This was followed by Hyundai in 2nd place and Volkswagen in 3rd.
Hyundai, again, claimed top-spot for the most popular model. The Tucson had over 6% of the market and saw a 17% increase in sales compared to 2021. Remarkably, Toyota had five models in the top ten, when it came to sales.
There were 81% more electric vehicles sold in 2022 compared to 2021, a total of 15,678, with Volkswagen selling 26% of them, with the ID.4 also being the most popular electric vehicles. One in five electric vehicles sold in 2022 was an ID.4. Diesel cars were 20% less popular in 2022 than in 2021.
And it looks like Manual Transmission will never again be the most popular choice for new car owners – with Automatic now in the majority. 57% of all new cars sold in 2022 were automatics.
