Biggest year ever for car sales in NZ already
New Zealand new vehicle sales have already surpassed the total for 2016 – and there’s still one month to go.
‘‘There were 14,594 new vehicle registrations for the month of November, making it the strongest month of November on record,’’ says David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association (MIA).
‘‘It also took the 2017 calendar year past the full 2016 year, making it the strongest year on record for registrations – the fourth consecutive year in a row.
Total registrations of new vehicles for the 2017 year to date were 148,335 and this exceeds the 2016 full year total of 146,753 vehicles by 1582. Registrations for the year-to-date were 9.5 per cent above this time in 2016.’’
For the month of November, Toyota remains the overall market leader with 22 per cent market share (3227 units), followed by Ford with 11 per cent (1546) and Holden with 10 per cent (1489 units).
Toyota was also the market leader for passenger andSUV registrations with 23 per cent market share (2358 units) followed by Holden with 11 per cent (1149) and Mazda with 9 per cent (904).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (814) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (648 units) and the Toyota Highlander (445 units). All three were still driven by rental sales: 80 per cent of Corolla, 62 per cent of RAV4 and 71 per cent of Highlander registrations for the month.
In the commercial sector, Ford was the market leader with 22 per cent (943) followed by Toyota with 20 per cent (869) and Holden third with 8 per cent market share.
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 20 per cent share (874 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 14 per cent (620).
Year-to-date the Ford Ranger remains both the top commercial vehicle model and the top model overall with 8824 registrations compared with 7664 for the Toyota Hilux.
Vehicle segmentation for the month of November returns to more normal patterns of recent times with the top four spots taken up by SUVs and light commercial vehicles. The top segments were SUV medium vehicles with 19 per cent share, followed by the pickup/chassis-cab 4x4 segment with 13 per cent and SUV large with 12 per cent market share.
‘‘With one month to go the question on everyone’s lips is whether the total for the year will break through the 160,000 mark for the first time,’’ says Crawford.
‘‘The 150,000 total mark for a calendar year is no longer a question.’’ – Stuff