2021 the best year ever for new-car sales in New Zealand

Despite the lockdowns, supply problems, and industry uncertainty, 2021 has now been confirmed as the strongest year in history for new-car registrations according to the Motor Industry Association. 

In its release, the association confirmed that a total of 165,287 new vehicles were registered in 2021; beating the 161,519 from 2018, New Zealand’s previous strongest year, and 38.3 per cent up on 2020’s data.

The result comes following the best December on record for vehicle sales. The MIA says that 12,097 vehicles were registered in the final month of the year, up 44.3 per cent on December 2020’s numbers. 

Predictably the Ford Ranger led December 2021’s data, with 778 registrations, with the Mitsubishi Triton (757), and Toyota Hilux (644) filling the podium. 

For the second time this year the Tesla Model 3 was the most popular passenger car for the month, ending it fourth with 619 registrations. The Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan X-Trail, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Navara, and Toyota Hiace completed the top 10. 

The Ranger was unsurprisingly the most popular vehicle of the year outright, with 12,580 registrations overall for 2021. The Toyota Hilux was second, supply issues thwarting its charge with 8,430 registrations to its name. The Mitsubishi Outlander was third, on 6,506. 

Toyota was the market leader for the year in full; its 29,258 overall registrations giving it a 18 per cent market share. 

Mitsubishi, Ford, Kia, and Mazda followed in second to fifth, with 12, 10, six, and six per cent market share, respectively. Nissan, Hyundai, Suzuki, Volkswagen, and Honda completed the top 10, with MG and Tesla finishing just shy in 11th and 12th. 

On the electrified vehicle front, a total of 6,899 new electric vehicles, 2,461 plug-in hybrids, and 13,794 hybrids were registered in 2021. EVs have rapidly gone from being the least popular choice in the electrified group, to being much more popular than plug-ins and knocking on the door of hybrids.