HILUX BACK ON TOP

Rising cost of living is hitting newvehicle sales, but never mind the Clean Car rules: diesel utes still rule.

There’s good news and bad news in the New Zealand new-vehicle sales figures for July. The bad news is

that the market is down nearly 20 per cent on the same period last year, Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford putting it down to “rising costs of living, high fuel prices, continued vehicle supply constraints and a weakening NZ economy”.

However, some cheer for

Toyota NZ as a familiar face returns to the top of the sales charts. The Hilux is the top-selling model overall year-to-date (YTD), thanks in part to a lull in Ford Ranger sales as it went through a full model change in July. The Outlander is the second most-popular model for 2022 so far, followed by the

Ranger.

Toyota also leads in overall market share YTD with 17 per cent, but followed very closely by Mitsubishi with 16 per cent and then Ford with 8 per cent.

Remove commercial vehicles (which includes utes) from the equation and Mitsubishi actually leads Toyota for passenger/SUV share, with 16 per cent versus 14 per cent.

Six of the top 10 models YTD include electrified powertrain options: Outlander, RAV4, Suzuki Swift, Eclipse Cross, MG ZS and Hyundai Kona.

But for July specifically, the top battery electric vehicle (BEV) was the Peugeot e-208, followed by Polestar 2 and Kia EV6. The most popular plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) was the Mitsubishi Outlander, ahead of the Eclipse Cross and Hyundai Ioniq. The top hybrids (non plug-in) for July were all Toyotas: RAV4, Highlander and Yaris.