NZ sales: Market slip eases in November

NEW Zealand’s motor market made a modest recovery last month thanks to a lift in SUV sales, but the industry is still headed for its first annual loss in a decade.

November vehicle registrations were down 3.5 per cent, which is better than the 10.2 per cent drop in October.

With one month to go in 2019, the year-to-date sales tally is running 4.7 per cent behind 2018.

The industry would need to shift more than 18,000 vehicles in December to bridge the gap to 2018 when a record 161,519 vehicles were sold.

NZ Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford said November 2019 registrations came in at 13,850, down 509 units on November 2018.

“Year to date the market is down 4.7 per cent, which confirms our expectation that the market for 2019 will be down approximately 5.0 per cent on 2018 volumes,” he said.

The biggest drag on sales in November came from the commercial vehicle segment which crashed 12.6 per cent compared with the same month last year to 4210 units, down 606 units.

By comparison, 9640 passenger cars and SUVs were sold, representing a 1.06 per cent lift on the corresponding month last year.Medium and compact SUVs dominated, taking a combined 37 per cent of new-vehicle sales in November.

Thanks to its domination of passenger car and SUV sales, Toyota remained firmly in the lead of the sales race in November when it recorded 3110 sales for a 22 per cent market share – more than double the next best Ford’s 1360 registrations and 10 per cent share.

However, Ford continued to hold sway in the commercial vehicle sector, selling 994 vehicles for a 24 per cent share compared with Toyota’s 939 registrations and 22 per cent share.

Ford’s Ranger also remained on top spot in the model sales rankings with 907 sales, ahead of Toyota’s RAV4 (881 sales) which pushed its HiLux stablemate back to third place for the month.

Mitsubishi and Holden were locked in a battle for third place in November, with the Japanese brand edging out Holden by just two sales –1042 to 1040.

Year to date, Mitsubishi leads Holden by 586 units, 11,815 to 11,229 – a gap that should see Mitsubishi knock the GM brand out of third place.

Kia’s new Seltos compact SUV scored 400 sales in November to push the South Korean marqueup to sixth place in the overall market and up to second place in the passenger car and SUV rankings.

In the rental market, Toyota stands supreme, holding the top four sales positions with its Corolla, RAV4, Yaris and Prado.

NZ Top 10 Brands November 2019