Hybrid car sales up 140%

Sales of new hybrid cars have continued their rapid growth, rising by 140 per cent in January in Western Australia compared with the same month last year, and bucking the overall trend of declining new vehicle sales.     

In WA, 125 new hybrid cars were sold last month compared with 52 in January 2018, according to the latest new vehicle sales report from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Last year, 980 new hybrid cars were sold, a 34 per cent increase on the year prior.

Nationally the trend is similar, with 1,068 new hybrid cars sold for January, up by 141 per cent on the same month last year.

A total of 6,971 new vehicles were sold last month in WA, a 5.8 per cent decrease on the same month in 2018.

Overall, there was a 7.4 per cent decrease in Australia.

Every state and territory in the country, apart from the North Territory, recorded a fall.

Australia’s most popular brand by new car sales, Toyota, sold 15,961 new cars for January, a 4.3 per cent increase compared with the same month last year.

Mazda, the country’s second most popular brand by new car sales, was at 9,490, a fall of 6.2 per cent.

Toyota has hybrid options for its Camry, Corolla and Prius models in Australia.

Mazda currently does not have any hybrid vehicles available for sale in the country.