Another record Kiwi year, not so great for Kangaroos

Another record year for New Zealand vehicle registrations according to the Motor Industry Association, makes this the fifth consecutive year of record registrations.

December’s figures were down compared to last December by some 420 units, but there was enough in the bank to carry the total registrations to 161,519 which saw a one percent rise or 1648 units above the registrations for 2017.

Passenger and SUVS were not major contributors to the end result, however. In fact, these segments were both down by about 403, but commercials were up by 2049 units over those of 2017.

For the month of December, Toyota remains the overall market leader with 26 percent market share (2,900 units), followed by Holden with nine percent (1,012 units) and Mitsubishi with eight percent market share (909 units).

Toyota was also the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with a massive 28 percent market share (2,175 units) followed by Holden with 10 percent (772 units) closely followed by Mazda with 9 percent market share (712 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (732) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (515) and the Toyota Highlander (325 units).

In the luxury sector passenger and SUV sector, Mercedes-benz saw 2,251 registrations, followed by Audi with 1,811 registrations and BMW with 1,649. However, the market for these brands softened during 2018 compared to the 2017 outturn, signalling a distinct pending softening in the market.

In the commercial sector, Toyota was the market leader with 21 percent (725 units) followed by Ford with 19 percent (647 units) and Mitsubishi third with 12 percent market share (405 units). The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 17 percent share (604 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux also with 17 percent share (588 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Triton with 12 percent (405 units).

For the fourth year in a row, the Ford Ranger remained both the top commercial vehicle model and the top model overall with 9,904 registrations, up 484 units compared to 2017. The Toyota Hilux came in second with 8,086 registrations, also up on 2017 volumes by 980 units. The Toyota Corolla was the third highest selling model for the year with 7,300 registrations.

Vehicle segmentation for the 2018 year saw SUV’S and light commericals dominating the market, and only the small vehicle segment breaking into the top five spots with 12 percent share.

The top two segments for the year were SUV medium vehicles with 17 percent share (27,162 units) followed by the Pick Up/ Chassis Cab 4x4 segment with 15 percent (23,870 units). SUV compact and SUV large round out the top four spots with 13 percent and 12 percent each of the market with the Small vehicle segment filling fith place with 10 percent of the market.

The situation was not mirrored in Australia however, which saw a decline of 14.9 percent from December 2018 and December 2017. Total vehicle registrations ended on 1,153,111, a reduction of three percent from 2017.

Despite showing a decline between December 2018 and December 2017 of 2,848 vehicles, SUVS were the dominant force in Australia which, all told made up 43 percent of the market.

Light commercials saw a drop too, December 2018 showing 2,722 or 12.5 percent this time with Toyota’s Hilux recording 51,705 registrations and Ford’s Ranger at 42,144.

Across the brands, Toyota again led the Australian market in 2018 with 18.8 percent market share, followed by Mazda (9.7 percent), Hyundai (8.2 percent), Mitsubishi (7.4 percent) and Ford (6 percent).