NZ Sales: Kiwi sales continue upwards, record July

2021 CONTINUES to be good to the New Zealand new-car market, with the industry having just posted its strongest July on record with 15,053 new registrations, taking the yearly total to a record-breaking 33,790 units.

The monthly figures mark a 22.8 per cent improvement on the 12,263 registrations recorded in July last year while the yearly total (99,622 units) is now a mammoth 51.3 per cent higher than it was at the same point in 2020.

Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford attributed this boost in sales to the recently introduced rebate scheme, even though green vehicles still only make up a fraction of the country’s total sales.

“The introduction of the Clean Car Discount (rebate) saw a lift in the sale of BEVs and PHEVs

while hybrid sales remain strong,” he said.

In terms of the market leaders, Toyota continued to rule the roost with a dominant 16 per cent share (2434 units) of the market last month with Mitsubishi once again following behind in second (1960/13%).

Ford maintained its third position with its 1728 sales (11%) gifting it a comfortable buffer over Mazda in fourth (897/6%) while Suzuki rounded out the top five 100 units behind (797/5%).

Sixth went to Hyundai with 726 new deliveries (5%) – 13 units clear of its sister brand, Kia, which slid down from fourth in June to finish July in seventh (713/5%).

Nissan likewise had a less than ideal month, slipping down from sixth to a lonely eighth (668/4%), some 124 units clear of Volkswagen in ninth (544/4%).

A resurgent MG rounded out the top 10 for the first time since April with 403 sales, netting the Chinese brand a three per cent slice of the action.

As for the most popular models, it should come as no real surprise that the Ford Ranger continued its run in the hot seat with 1418 deliveries, thrashing the Toyota HiLux’s 809 sales.

The HiLux’s return to second inevitably bumped the Mitsubishi ASX down into third (737), but only by 72 units.

There was another upset for fourth place with the Toyota RAV4 (553) switching places with the Mitsubishi Triton (fifth, 489) while the latter’s stablemate, the Outlander, held onto sixth (365).

Exactly 60 units behind in seventh was the Mazda CX-5 (305) which had the Nissan Qashqai breathing down its neck with 293 sales in eighth.

The Suzuki Swift was once again the only standard passenger car within the top 10 (275) while there was a tie for 10th place between the MG ZS and Hyundai Kona which each chalked up 270 sales.

Small SUVs continued their market dominance in 2021, accounting for 25 per cent of the total market last month with 3811 examples shifted across all makes.

Despite the unwavering popularity of the Ranger and strong performance of the HiLux, the 4x4 pick-up segment still can’t even get close to matching the compact family haulers for popularity, occupying 16 per cent (2422) of the market.

Medium SUVs were the third-most popular vehicles with 2268 examples registered last month, equating to a 15 per cent market share.

As mentioned earlier, sales of electrified vehicles have accelerated dramatically following the introduction of the Clean Car Discount initiative with 760 battery-electric vehicles, 431 PHEVs and 1163 hybrids registered last month.

Mr Crawford was pleased with the progress and noted the significant jump in EV sales year-on-year.

“Year to date there are 2377 passenger (not including light commercial vans) BEVs registered, compared to the same period last year there were only 701 BEVs registered,” he said.

NZ Top 10 Brands July 2021

NZ Top 10 Models July 2021