Slight growth in car and light commercial registrations last month is cause for mild optimism.

PASSENGER and light commercial vehicle sales activity in May suggest the market has yet to regain momentum, yet returns have still heartened the industry.

Aimee Wiley, chief executive of the Motor Industry Association - the representative body for most new vehicle distributors - says the overall registrations count for a month in which the Ford Ranger dominated as the strongest buy-in, with 1051 registered, was also just 65 units up on he result for May, 2024.

Year to date, the market is also three percent softer, showing 51,625 cumulative registrations and 53,352 over the same period in 2024.

This signals the market is yet to regain momentum and, she adds, there is probability more quiet months lay ahead.

Even so, the May figures do offer “some cause for optimism and hopes for better times ahead.”

The total tally of registrations for last month came to 10,251 passenger cars and light commercials, the latter category including one-tonne utes.

For cars and SUVs specifically, a 6817 count showed a small improvement on the last May’s 6369, but light commercials (3016 units) and heavy commercial (418) were down, those categories claiming 3154 units and 663 units respectively in May of last year.

Toyota’s RAV4 was the top passenger model for the month with 666 sales, also the top selling hybrid.

The best selling fully electric car was the Polestar 2, with 72 units, and the top performing plug-in hybrid was the MG HS, with 54. Those sectors remain desultory, with EV counts to date only slightly higher than last year, a period of massive decline.

The RAV4 is the leading model on a year-to-date basis with 3806 registrations for a 10.5 percent share of the market, and Ranger likewise dominates the light commercial category with 1051 sales and a 34.8 percent market share.

It is followed by the Toyota Hilux, which achieved 910 sales last month and has 3438 year to date, and holds a 30.2 percent share of the market.