NZ Sales: 2021 looking good, up 6.2 per cent

AFTER a tumultuous year in 2020 which saw it finish 23 per cent down on 2019, the New Zealand new-vehicle market has bounced back and posted positive year-on-year growth for the first month of 2021, with the whole market up 6.2 per cent compared to January 2020.

The 6.2 per cent increase equates to an extra 815 vehicles finding homes with the grand total being 13,893 units for the month, enough to make January 2021 the third-strongest on record.

Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive David Crawford attributed the strong start to the influx of stock that arrived in December as well as the “resilient local economy”.

At the top of the tables, Toyota maintained its position as the country’s best-selling brand, comfortably maintaining its 17 per cent stranglehold on the market with 2368 sales, more than 900 units clear of Mitsubishi (1437/10%) who held onto second place for the second month in a row.

Ford rounded out the top three with 1390 sales (10%), only just edging out Kia who notched up 1352 deliveries, also earning it a 10 per cent market share.

Mazda came home in fifth with 1033 sales for the month (7%), well clear of Suzuki (719) and Hyundai (679) in sixth and seventh respectively, each occupying a five per cent slice of the market.

Nissan was in no-man’s-land in eighth (601/4%) ahead of Volkswagen (450/3%) and Honda (365/3%), rounding out the top 10.

In terms of the most popular models, it was largely a case of as you were following the conclusion of 2020 with the Ford Ranger once again taking top honours with 948 new registrations ahead of the Toyota HiLux (750) and RAV4 (471).

Next was the Mitsubishi Triton with 414 sales which was followed by an onslaught of medium and compact SUVs lead by the Mitsubishi Outlander (389), Kia Seltos (387) and Mitsubishi ASX (375).

Kia’s Sportage came in eighth with 374 deliveries, ahead of the Mazda CX-5 in ninth (302) and Nissan Navara in tenth (281).

Bucking the trend of 2020, compact SUVs rose to the top as the most popular vehicle segment in January, occupying a solid 26 per cent of the total market, followed loosely by medium SUVs (18%) and 4x4 pick-up trucks (16%).

Electrified vehicles also enjoyed a solid opening to 2021 with 1410 new green vehicles being registered, 1073 of which were hybrids, not including 93 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

Of those 1410 units, 244 were dedicated battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), something the MIA described as “encouraging”.

NZ Top 10 Brands January 2021

NZ Top 10 Models January 2021