All approved so far have a unique Rego Number each, starting...

All approved so far have a unique Rego Number each, starting with YP followed by current year of approval (4 digits) plus another 4 digits.

However this rego number is not the number assigned when application was received. It is a number when approved. So it is hard to say which one is earlier or later.

In addition, we can tell the country of brand as per the last 4 digits:

5xxx means foreign brand
0xxx means domestic (China)

For example the January Approval list has:

Chinese one - YP20180045 for Heilongjiang Yipin IF.

Kiwi one - YP20185006