Good news, bad news for NZ new vehicle sales

Toyota’s RAV4 (above) was the top selling vehicle for June. Photo: Toyota

New vehicle sales in New Zealand may be down but one brand is calling last month the “storm before the calm”, another found June’s new vehicle registrations were better than the same time last year, whilst premium brands are finding plenty of customers.

The Motor Industry Association (MIA) just announced that June sales figures were down 2438 units on the same month last year.

MIA chief executive David Crawford said June reflects “a steady but weaker market compared to 2019”.

“Year to date the market is down 29.1 per cent in a year that is heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 16 per cent market share (1874 units), followed by Holden with 9 per cent (995 units) and Ford in third spot with 8 per cent market share (868 units). 

Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 13 per cent market share (954 units) followed by Kia with 10 per cent (708 units), then Hyundai with 8 per cent market share (576 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (403 units) followed by the Kia Sportage (287 units, and the Toyota Corolla (271 units).

Toyota retained the market lead with 22 per cent market share (920 units) followed by Ford with 17 per cent (714 units), and Holden third with 12per cent market share (485 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 16 per cent share (641 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 15 per cent share (595 units) and the Holden Colorado in third place with 12 per cent market share (482 units). 

The Ford Ranger (above) retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model. Photo: Ford

While the top three models sold for the month were all one tonne utes, overall the top segments for the month of June were dominated by SUV’s. The top spot went to the SUV medium vehicles with 19 per cent share followed by SUV compact with 18 per cent market share and the pick up/chassis 4x4 segment with 17 per cent.  

Pure electric vehicles continued their modest rate of monthly registrations at 131 units for June, with 54 PHEV’s and 590 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.

While the MIA said in its press release that “sales of both passenger and commercial vehicles were down, confirmation the market is tightening its belt in a recession” brands AutoMuse has spoken with the past few days have been shocked by the amount of new vehicle sales.

One luxury brand said its dealerships were selling out of new stock and were having to wait until September for the next shipment of vehicles from Europe.

“We are calling it the ‘storm before the calm’, people came out of lockdown ready to buy a new car,” the brand told AutoMuse.

A premium brand told us that they had been conservative with both new vehicles sales figures and orders from the factory with its dealerships seeing a steady flow of buyers.

That plays out in the MIA figures for June with Mercedes-Benz registering 209 new vehicles, Audi at 165 and BMW at 159.

The respite for the European brand here in New Zealand is that stock will be available, albeit a few months later than expected, as factories have reopened and are getting back to 100 per cent production.

Another brand told AutoMuse that they did better last month than June 2019 and that included having a site at Fieldays, traditionally an important event at Mystery Creek that sees car distributors selling large volumes to the farming community.

Brands that AutoMuse spoke with cited Kiwis not going on overseas trips this winter as a reason for solid sales, especially in the luxury segment.

Another brand said that distributors learnt a lot from the GFC so were using the strategies from 12 years ago to help with new vehicle sales.