NZ new vehicle sales down for August due to lockdown

The Tesla Model 3 was the top-selling EV for August, with 191 registrations. Photo: Andrei Diomidov Photography

It will come as no surprise that the figures for new car sales in August in New Zealand would be low due to the nationwide lockdown.

Motor Industry Association (MIA) Chief Executive David Crawford says that August 2021 sales of new vehicles were heavily affected by the countrywide Alert Level 4 snap lockdown.   

For August there were 6,746 vehicles sold compared to 10,610 vehicles in August 2020, a decrease of 36.2 percent (3,864 units). 

Year to date there have been 106,498 vehicles sold compared to 76,572 to the end of August 2020, an overall increase year to date of 39.1 percent (29,926 units). 

The Toyota RAV4 was the top-seller in August with 219 registrations.

With the Covid-19 snap lockdown effectively shutting down the second half of August for all but essential vehicles, it is no surprise that last month was approximately 45 percent lower than the three previous months (May, June, and July).

The top spot for August 2021 went to the SUV Compact vehicles with 22 percent share followed by the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 16 percent market share and then SUV Medium also with 16 percent share. Year to date compact and medium SUVs are the two strongest segments in our market. 

Year to date 56 percent of the market are small to medium-sized vehicles. 

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 23 percent market share (1,578 units), followed by Ford with 12 percent (817 units) and Mitsubishi in the third spot with 10 percent market share (673 units). 

The top-selling EV models were the Tesla Model 3 (191 units) followed by the MG ZS (56 units) and the Hyundai Kona (31 units). 

The Ford Ranger was the best seller in the commercial vehicle segment.

There were 81 plugin hybrid electric vehicles registered in August. The top-selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (28 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (23 units) and the MG HS (12 units).  

Even though the second half of August was shut down, hybrids continued their strong growth with 804 vehicles registered in the month of August. 

The top-selling models were the Toyota RAV4 (219 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (150 units) and Toyota Camry (94 units). Toyota and Lexus together accounted for 85 percent of the hybrid market in August (689 units). 

Toyota regained the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 25 percent market share (1124 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 11 percent (513 units) and then Suzuki with 9 percent market share (412 units). 

The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (447 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (302 units) and the Mitsubishi ASX (245 units).

Ford retained the market leader with 34 percent market share (729 units) followed by Toyota with 21 percent (454 units) and Mitsubishi third with 7 percent market share (160 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot for the month of August as the bestselling commercial model with 31 percent share (671 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 14 percent share (298 units) and the Toyota Hiace in third place with percent market share (136 units).