SUVs and utes drive the market
Some new sales trends are beginning to emerge as New Zealand’s new vehicle market continues to run at slightly ahead of record volumes.
“August 2018 new vehicle registrations of 13,200 vehicles were up 1.0 per cent (137 units) on August 2017. It was the strongest month of August ever, nudging ahead of August 1984 by 43 units,” said David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association.
“Year-to-date, the market is up by 1.7 per cent (1758 units) compared to the first eight months of 2017.”
Registrations of 8639 passenger and SUV vehicles for the month of August were up just 32 units on August 2017, an increase of 0.4 per The Mazda CX-5 was New Zealand’s top-selling SUV model in August.
cent and registrations of 4561 commercial vehicles were up by 2.4 per cent (105 units) on August 2017.
SUV Medium models remained the most popular choice with new vehicle customers accounting for 16 per cent of August registrations followed by Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 models with 14 per cent, SUV Compact also with 14 per cent and
Holden ranked third with 9 per cent market share (407 units).
The top selling model for the month of August was once again the Ford Ranger with 785 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 693 units and then the Toyota Corolla with 597 units, of which 381 were rental car registrations.
Year-to-date, Toyota continues to dominate the rental market with Small cars with 11 per cent market share.
“With the continued high price of petrol, we are starting to see a small but discernible shift towards smaller vehicles,” Crawford said.
Toyota continued its run as the overall market leader achieving 17 per cent market share (2292 units) in August followed by Ford with 11 per cent (1428 units) and Mazda with 8 per cent market share (1053 units).
Market share rankings were closer in the Passenger and SUV segments with Toyota claiming 15 per cent market share (1334 units) followed by Mazda with 10 per cent (841 units) and Mitsubishi with 8 per cent market share (702 units).
A close result in the commercial vehicle sector saw Toyota as market leaders with 21 per cent market share (958 units) followed by Ford with 20 per cent (908 units). the Toyota Corolla at the top of the table with 1522 units followed by the Toyota RAV4 (1,127 units) and Toyota Highlander (851 units).
New Zealand’s top-10 models in August saw Pick Up/Chassis Cab utility models in five of the topseven places with three SUV models and two passenger cars also in the top-10.
The top-selling SUV model in August was the Mazda CX-5 ahead of the Mitsubishi ASX and Kia Sportage.
With eight months of the year complete the luxury brand segment sees Mercedes-Benz in front with 1520 units from Audi with 1331 and BMW 1266.
Sales have slowed slightly in this segment with all three German brands having sold fewer new cars in the first eight months of 2018 than were sold in the same period last year.