NZ’s new car industry stuns with near-record month
Ford’s Ranger was the top-selling vehicle for September with 1408 registrations. Photo: Ford
Lockdown? What lockdown? That’s what most new vehicle dealers and distributors will be thinking with September figures showing it was the second strongest month since the Motor Industry Association began keeping records.
And it was also no surprise that the Tesla Model 3 was the top-selling car in September with 1066 registration, nearly matching its registrations year-to-date up to August of 1094 sales.
Year to date there have been 123,016 vehicles sold compared to 87,474 to the end of September 2020, an overall increase year to date of 40.6 percent (35,542 units).
Motor Industry Association (MIA) Chief Executive David Crawford says that September 2021 sales of new 16,518 vehicles showed a strong rebound with the country moving down alert levels, even with Auckland still in Alert Level 3.
Tesla’s Model 3 2as the top-selling car, and the first electric vehicle to make the top three. Photo: Andrei Diomidov Photography
“This is the first time there were more fully electric vehicles registered in a month than (non-plugin) hybrid vehicles,” he said.
The huge registration of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) was due to the Government’s clean car rebate.
“New vehicle distributors have worked hard under trying circumstances to supply orders. The result is remarkable given Auckland was at Alert Level 3 for the month,” said Crawford.
The top market segment in September 2021 was SUV Compact vehicles with 22 percent share followed by SUV Medium also with 19 percent share and then the Pick Up/Chassis 4×4 segment with 14 percent market share.
The top-selling vehicle overall was Ford’s Ranger with 1408 registrations for September, with the Model 3 number two and Mitsubishi’s Outlander at the third spot. It was the first time a BEV has made it to the top three model registrations in any one month.
Toyota remains the overall market leader with an 18 percent market share (2934 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 13 percent (2176 units) and Ford in the third spot with 11 percent market share (1870 units). Tesla was in the fourth spot with a 6 percent share (1066 units).
