UTES CHARGE

Ranger, Hilux back on top for August, but EVs claimed 20 per cent of market

August was a month of extremes for the New Zealand new-vehicle market. The top three sellers were traditional Kiwi ute favourites Ford Ranger (934 registrations) and Toyota Hilux (897) – but followed by the pure-electric Tesla Model 3 (745).

It was also the biggest August for the new-vehicle market on record with 14,690 sales, which Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive David Crawford attributes to “shipments arriving allowing back orders to be filled”. It’s 118 per cent up on August 2021, which was severely affected by a Covid-19 lockdown.

According to Crawford, lightcommercial volume (which includes utes) is also almost back to pre-Clean Car Discount levels, despite the programme imposing substantial fees on buyers of higher-emitting vehicles.

August registrations also showed 2530 sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 627 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), meaning EVs accounted for more than 20 per cent of the total market – thanks partly to that huge push from the Tesla shipment, which also brought 581 Model Y SUVs. Newcomer BYD also made a big impact with 448 units of its new Atto 3.

The top PHEVs were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (198), Mitsubishi Outlander (191) and MG HS +EV (98).

Sales of petrol-hybrid (non plug-in) vehicles were 1626 for August, led by the Toyota RAV4 (342), Kia Niro (166) and Toyota Highlander (154).

Toyota retained market leadership for August with an 18 per cent share, followed by Mitsubishi (12 per cent) and Ford (8 per cent).

Year-to-date the top three models are Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Outlander.