NZ sales: Softening market hits May sales

THE New Zealand new-vehicle market took a hit in May, with sales down 13.5 per cent or 1910 vehicles on the same month last year.

 

The monthly total of 12,259 vehicles brought to an end the run of boom May tallies over the past two years, but was still higher than May 2016. 

 

While commercial vehicle registrations held up reasonably well last month, falling just 5.3 per cent to 4635 sales, passenger car and SUV sales were crunched. Combined, they were down 17.8 per cent to 7624 units.

 

Releasing the May data, NZ Motor Industry Association chief executive officer David Crawford said the figures showed a softening of the market.

 

“The outturn for May 2019 indicates the new vehicle market is softening, consistent with weaker regional vehicle sales in 2019 across Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

 

The May performance brought the year-to-date sales tally to 61,715 vehicles, down 3178 units or 4.9 per cent on the first five months of 2018.

 

Toyota again led the way with 1893 sales for a 15.0 per cent market share.

 

Ford held on to second place with 1337 sales (11.0% share), while Holden gained ground to take third place with 1002 sales (8.0%).

 

Toyota’s RAV4 was the top-selling passenger car/SUV for the month with 492 sales. Hyundai’s Tucson came second (301), with Mazda’s CX-5 third (224).

 

In the commercial vehicle sector, Ford turned the tables on Toyota by again topping the sales chart with its Ranger that made 878 sales compared with the Toyota HiLux’s 552 sales. Third was Mitsubishi’s Triton (514).

 

Ford’s 1009 commercial vehicle sales in May gave it a whopping 22.0 per cent market share of the segment, compared with Toyota’s 17.0 per cent (802 units) and Mitsubishi’s 11.0 per cent (514).

 

Year to date, the five top-selling models in NZ are all utes, led by the Ranger (4022 units), then HiLux (2788), Triton (2518), Holden Colorado (1986) and Nissan Navara (1623).

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