NZ Sales: CCD causes July sales crash

NEW ZEALAND’S Motor Industry Association (MIA) has labelled ‘concerning’ the effect of the country’s Clean Car Discount (CCD) policy changes on new vehicle sales, noting a 44.1 per cent year-on-year decrease in July sales, a 54.9 per cent lower monthly average than in all of 2022, and a 49.6 per cent drop in the average shown over the first five months of 2023.

MIA chief executive, Aimee Wiley, says that although a decline in registration was expected at the start of the new financial year, the disruption generated by CCD policy changes have caused “unnecessary complexity and uncertainty for distributors, the dealership network and the entire supply chain associated with the automotive industry throughout the country”.

With July sales totaling just 6202 units, New Zealand has witnessed its lowest new car sales month since April 2011. Passenger and SUV models made up the majority of vehicles sold with 4347 units, followed by light- and heavy commercial models with 1196 and 659 unit sales respectively.

Not surprisingly, given New Zealand’s tightening CCD policy, the percentage of new energy vehicles sold across July formed a significant portion of all vehicle sales. Hybrid vehicles amassed a total of 1150 unit sales with battery electric vehicles managing 826 unit sales and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles 406. ICE vehicles filled the balance with 3820 unit sales.

Continuing past months’ trends, the Kiwi market showed a preference for mid-sized SUV models, which comprised 24.7 per cent of all new vehicle sales, followed by compact SUV models with 19.2 per cent and 4x4 pick-up/cab-chassis models on 14.1 per cent.

Passenger vehicle sales favoured the Toyota RAV4 (319 units), Ford Everest (265 units) and Kia Niro (184 units), while light commercial preferences fell to the Ford Ranger (518 units), Toyota HiLux (270 units) and Iveco Daily (82 units).

Overall, the top three market leaders for July were Toyota with a 16.7 per cent slice of the action (1306 units) ahead of Ford with 14.5 per cent (899 units) and Kia with 8.1 per cent (501 units)

Toyota also retained the market lead for passenger and SUV sales in July with a 15.7 per cent share of the market (681 units), followed by Kia with 11.5 per cent (510 units) and Mitsubishi in third place with a 9.8 per cent share (427 units).

Battery electric vehicle favourites for July saw the Tesla Model Y in top place with 169 unit sales ahead of Kia’s Niro with 147 and the Volkswagen ID.4 with 63 units. PHEV sales saw the Mitsubishi Outlander top the podium with 141 sales ahead of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross’ 89 unit sales and Lexus NX’s 27. Top three hybrid sales were the Toyota RAV4 (307), Hyundai Tucson (113) and Honda Jazz (75).

Top 10 sales by Make (July passenger, SUV and commercial):

Top 10 sales by Model (July passenger and SUV):

Top 10 sales by Model (July commercial):

Note: all figures are supplied courtesy of the Motor Industry Association of New Zealand.