Sales in the first five months of 2022 were up by 4 per cent (306 vehicles) to 1771 compared with the first five months of 2021, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' May VFACTS report.

Every other state and territory had falling sales, with national year to date sales down by 4.1 per cent.

Toyota continued to top Tasmanian sales, shifting 1684 of the 7914 new vehicles sold in the January-May period.

No other marque reached 1000 sales, with Ford (487), Hyundai (484), Mazda (564), fast-rising MG (543), Mitsubishi (884) and Subaru (449) the others to top 400.

Tasmania's overall increase in sales was largely driven by vehicle hire companies increasing their purchases by 305 to 679.

Private buyers increased their purchases by 81 and government buyers by 59.

Sales to businesses dropped by 134.

Electric vehicle sales more than tripled, but, at 170 year to date, they accounted for only slightly more than 2 per cent of total sales.

Petrol vehicles (3937) and diesel vehicles (2919) continued to dominate sales.

There were also 570 hybrids sold and 41 plug-in hybrids, plus 277 heavy commercials.

SUVS made up nearly half of total sales with 3900.

Light commercials (2318) and passenger vehicles (1419) followed.

Passenger vehicles had something of a resurgence after a long-running trend of losing market share.

Their sales increased by 27.6 per cent, with SUVs down by 0.3 per cent.

Japan (2494) and Thailand (2091) were the state's biggest suppliers by a long way, with South Korea (953) third.