New car sales surge 28%

There were 13,244 new passenger vehicles registered in September, which was up by 27.9 per cent from 10,351 units in the same month of last year.

Toyota’s Corolla Cross, pictured, was the leading model last month after selling 1,053 units, up from 129 in September 2025, and accounting for eight per cent of the market. 

The Mitsubishi Outlander was next with 964 sales for a market share of 7.3 per cent, followed by the Toyota RAV4 and Mitsubishi ASX on 803 and 680 units respectively.

Tesla’s Model Y completed the top five after 588 registrations in September, up 209.5 per cent from 190 a year ago. There were 240 sales of BYD’s Atto 2, a new market entrant.

September’s overall tally for new-vehicle registrations also increased 45.1 per cent from 9,125 sales in August this year.

There have been 82,451 sales year-to-date, which is up by 16.9 per cent from 70,550 at the same stage a year ago.

The RAV4 is the best-selling model so far in 2026 with 5,602 sales and a 6.8 per cent market share. The Corolla Cross is second on 3,446 and 4.2 per cent and the ASX third with 3,149 and 3.8 per cent.

Toyota topped the marques’ ladder in September with 3,003 registrations – up 17 per cent from 2,567 in the same month last year– and 22.7 per cent of the market. 

Mitsubishi was second with 1,758 sales and 13.3 per cent, and Kia came third on 1,386 and 10.5 per cent. 

BYD and Tesla both made significant gains in the September statistics and were the fourth and fifth most-popular marques respectively. BYD sold 871 units compared with 106 in the same month of last year, while Tesla’s figures jumped from 228 to 650.

Toyota is the leading marque year-to-date with 15,799 registrations and a 19.2 per cent slice of the market.

Next is Kia with 7,490 registrations and 9.1 per cent, and Mitsubishi on 7,363 and 8.9 per cent.