THE BIG UTE CRASH IN APRIL

Light commercial sales plummet in NZ — but clean cars and SUVs are on a high

The New Zealand new-vehicle market has had its weakest April since 2015; mostly because it was the first time in over a decade that utes have not dominated the charts. In fact, April was the first month in over a decade that a pickup truck did not appear among the top three sellers.

According to Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive David Crawford, the sales dive was “anticipated following the introduction of the Clean Car Discount that became operative on April 1”. Under the Clean Car scheme, buyers of higheremitting vehicles (such as diesel utes) have to pay fines based on CO2 output, while purchasers of lower-emissions vehicles receive rebates.

Overall, April 2022 registrations of 9756 vehicles were down 25.6 per cent on the same time last year, although the market is still up 3.4 per cent year-to-date.

The top three models for the month were the Mitsubishi Outlander (837), Toyota RAV4 (716) and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (544).

Ute sales overall were down 72 per cent. The top model was the Ford Ranger (287), followed by the Toyota Hilux (103) and Nissan Navara (85).

Despite the crash in ute sales, April was still the second strongest month on record for passenger vehicles and SUVs, with electrified models leading the charge. All three top sellers from Mitsubishi and Toyota are available in hybrid or plug-in form.

There were 570 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold in April. The top seller was the Polestar 2 (81), followed by the Nissan Leaf (71) and Hyundai Kona Electric (70). All are available in models that qualify for the maximum $8625 Clean Car Discount.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) clocked up 1113 registrations, topped by the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (497), Mitsubishi Outlander (479) and MG HS (28).

Hybrids hit 2145 sales, led by the Toyota RAV4 (525), Honda Jazz (461) and Toyota Corolla (198).

The most popular segments were April were SUV Medium (27 per cent share), SUV Compact (23 per cent) and Light Passenger (16 per cent).