Ford fights back, and wins
The Ford Ranger has fended off Toyota’s updated Hilux for November sales, finds Nile Bijoux.
Registrations for last month have come in lower than this time last year, as expected, but more interesting is the news that
Ford’s Ranger still managed to take the top spot, despite the Toyota Hilux coming in with ultra-sharp pricing.
November’s registrations came in at 14.2 per cent below the same month last year with 11,889 vehicles registered, down 1961 units on the same month last year.
‘‘Year to date, the market is down 22.5 per cent, which is a better result than anticipated back April when we were in the depths of the Covid-19 lockdown period,’’ said MIA chief executive, David Crawford.
The Ford Ranger was the bestselling vehicle for the month, notching up 1006 registrations, followed by the new Toyota Hilux (636 units), and the Toyota RAV4 was in third place (511 units).
That Ranger figure was enough to give Ford nearly 30 per cent of the commercial vehicle market. Toyota had 22 per cent with a total of 859 units moved, followed by Mitsubishi with 9 per cent (369 units).
Specifically, the Ranger had 26 per cent of the commercial market, (1006 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 17 per cent share (636 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 9 per cent market share (300 units).
‘‘November was a fantastic result and speaks volumes about Ford delivering what Ranger customers want through ongoing development of segment-leading capability, value and features,’’ said Simon Rutherford, managing director of Ford New Zealand.
‘‘For example, we’ve recently added Fordpass connectivity on all models and kept the lineup fresh and exciting, with additions like the Wildtrak X.
‘‘Next year, we will continue to raise the bar. More options – like the FX4 Max – will arrive next month, and we will make our Bi-turbo engine with the 10-speed transmission available on the XLT.
‘‘That powertrain has been a big factor in Ranger’s success, as customers experience more power, improved fuel economy and lower CO than key 2 mainstream competitor offerings.’’
Neeraj Lala, chief executive of Toyota NZ, told Stuff that on top of the 637 new Hiluxes that were delivered, the company was hurt by supply and shipping delays, resulting in orders being taken for a further 800. Toyota is also fielding close to 4000 orders overall. More than 40 per cent of its sales for last month were for hybrid models.
Meanwhile, Toyota remained the overall market leader with 19 per cent of the market (2311 vehicles sold), followed by Ford with 13 per cent (1524 units) and Mitsubishi with 11 per cent (1263 units).
In SUV and passenger sales, Toyota regained the market leader position for passenger and SUV registrations with 18 per cent market share (1452 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 12 per cent (927 units) and then Kia with 9 per cent market share (735 units).
There were 142 pure electric vehicles, 92 PHEVS and 1089 hybrid vehicles sold for the month. THEMGZS EV entered the market with 60 units registered for the month.
The top spot went to the SUV medium vehicles with 20 per cent share, followed by SUV Compact also with 20 per cent market share and then the Pickup/chassis 4x4 segment with 14 per cent share.