The all-new Ford Ranger has snatched back the top spot in new car sales in New Zealand after clean car fees and electric vehicles stifled the popular ute.

The Motor Industry Association (MIA) has just released October sales figures with 14,736 registrations of new vehicles, up 5.1 percent compared to October last year. Overall, the market year to date is 0.3 percent up on the first ten months of 2021. 

Registrations of 10,771 passenger cars and SUVs were up 16.5 percent (1,525 units) on the same month last year and are ahead of 2021 year to date by 3.6 percent (up 3,397 units). 

Registrations of 3965 new commercial vehicles were down 16.9 percent (808 units) in October last year. Year-to-date sales of commercial vehicles are down 6.7 percent (2,922 units) in the first 10 months of 2021.

But that didn’t stop Ford NZ from seeing 1491 registrations of the Ranger last month, with a total of 8939 sales year-to-date giving it the ute the top spot overall for 2022.

Last year, the Ranger was the top-selling vehicle overall with 12,580 registrations but so far this year, it’s seen the likes of Telsa’s Model Y as the best seller for the month.

The Mitsubishi Outlander (1030 units) was the second top-selling vehicle in October, followed by the Toyota RAV4 in third place (746 units).

Toyota retained the overall market leader with 20 percent market share (2,969 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 14 percent (2,019 units), and Ford in the third spot with 13 percent market share (1,972 units). 

Market share year to date, Toyota has retained the lead with 18 percent (24,091 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 15 percent share (20,980 units) and then Ford with 8 percent (11,649 units). 

There were 1125 light vehicles and 25 heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles registered in October. The top-selling models were the BYD Atto 3 (206 units) followed by the MG ZS (169 units) and the Tesla Model Y (167 units). 

Registrations of plug-in hybrids were strong with 919 units registered for the month. The top-selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (409 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (313 units) and then the MG HS (83 units). 

There were 2281 hybrids registered in the month of October, with the top-selling models being the Toyota RAV4 (599 units) followed by the Toyota Yaris Cross (237 units) and the Honda Jazz (231 units). 

The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Mitsubishi Outlander (1030 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (746 units) and then the Toyota Corolla (478 units).