New car sales in NZ remain slow

Just like the retail and real estate sectors, new car sales in NZ remain subdued with the total sales figures for April down on previous years. With the Government setting an agenda of austerity and job cuts, it’s only natural that this negative sentiment will flow through to the markets. 

With regos of 9238, April 2024 was down nine per cent on the same month last year, and five per cent down on 2022.  Year-to-date, the overall market is down 10 per cent on last year, 23 per cent lower than 2022 and 27 per cent down on 2021. 

What is the best selling vehicle in NZ?

The best sellers in April

1 TOYOTA RAV4 1012 – 2 FORD RANGER 837 – 3 TOYOTA HILUX 513 – 4 MITSUBISHI TRITON 405 – 5 SUZUKI SWIFT 257

The best sellers YTD

1 FORD RANGER 4270 – 2 TOYOTA RAV4 2886 – 3 TOYOTA HILUX 2473 – 4 MITSUBISHI TRITON 1849 – 5 OUTLANDER 1209

What is the best selling car brand in NZ?

One in every four vehicles sold was a Toyota in April, the T brand taking 25.8 per cent market share (2382 units), followed by Ford with 13.7 per cent (1266 units) and Mitsubishi with 10.3 per cent (948 units). 

Some other stats from the monthly Motor Industry Association round up include 

April registrations breakdown: Light Passenger 6120, Light Commercial 2521 and Heavy Commercial at 597. 

Total Industry by motive power for the month of April: 276 Battery Electric (3.0 per cent share), 183 Plug-In Hybrid (2.0 per cent share), 2,380 Mild Hybrid (25.8 per cent share) and 6,399 ICE vehicles (69.3 per cent share). 

The overall top three segments in April were SUV Medium (26.5%), followed by Pick Up/Chassis Cab (22.6%) and SUV Compact (19.6%).

Light Passenger Motive Power Insights

What was the best selling EV in NZ?

The top five models in April: Tesla Model Y (48 units), followed by Tesla Model 3 (19 units), BYD Seal (16 units), Volkswagen ID.4 (15 units) and Volvo EX30 (15 units). 

The top five PHEV models in April: Mitsubishi Outlander (38 units) followed by Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (17 units), Volkswagen Touareg (11), Mini Countryman (11 units) and Lexus NX (10 units).