June proves successful for new car sales in NZ

Mitsubishi’s ASX was the top selling vehicle in the passenger and SUV segment. Photo: Andrew Simms

Despite continuing issues with the arrival of new vehicles to New Zealand, last month proved to be successful with registrations, carrying on the trend of the past few months.

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that June 2021 sales of new vehicles reflect current market opportunities and constraints.  

As has been the case for so far this year, the market continues to be logistically challenging with worldwide shipping capacity still a long way off pre-Covid-19 levels and manufacturers still grappling with a worldwide shortage of semi-conductor chips, says the MIA.

Within these constraints the New Zealand market continues to perform exceptionally well, reports the MIA.

For June 2021, there were 15,135 registrations compared to 11,514 units for June 2020.  Year-to-date the market is up 57.7% (31,000 units) compared to the first six months of 2020. The month of June is the third-largest on record and the first six months of 2021 is the strongest on record. 

The introduction of the Clean Car Discount saw a slight reduction in the sale of PHEVs but BEV sales were reasonably strong. Hybrid sales are not yet eligible for a rebate and these remain strong. So far this year, there are 1,641 BEVs registered, compared to the same period last year there were only 611 BEVs registered. 

The top three models for the month of June were the Ford Ranger (912 units), followed by the Mitsubishi ASX (740 units) with the Toyota Hilux in third place (632 units).

The ASX was also the top-selling passenger and SUV model for the month with 740 units), followed by the Toyota RAV4 (487 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (408 units).

Mitsubishi is also celebrating that it is the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 14% market share (1415 units) followed by Toyota with 12% (1284 units) and then Kia with 10% market share (1019 units). 

In the commercial sector, Ford regained the market lead with 22% market share (1071 units) followed by Toyota with 18% (869 units) and Mitsubishi third with 15% market share (704 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot for the month of June as the bestselling commercial model with 19% share (912 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 13% share (632 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 12% market share (569 units).