New vehicle sales remain healthy in October

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

These are the ten top selling vehicles in New Zealand as of October 2021.

New car registrations have continued their steady run so far in 2021, but due to stock restrictions caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage, they are still behind pre-pandemic sales figures we would traditionally expect to see this time of year.

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford said that there were 13,870 sales of new vehicles in October 2021, and while this is an increase of 16.8 per cent (1,994 units) on the same month in 2020, it is still well behind where sales usually are in October.

“October is traditionally a strong month for new vehicle sales in New Zealand,” said Crawford.

October is a traditionally strong month for new car sales in New Zealand.

“While sales of new vehicles for the month were ahead of 2020 they were well behind October returns in each of the years from 2016 to 2019 inclusive.”

**READ MORE:

New cars are coming straight off the ships, through customs and compliance and straight to customers due to the high demand.

* Tesla Model 3 crushes Hilux in September sales

* Ranger fights back against Hilux in April sales

The Ford Ranger remains the best-selling vehicle in the country, despite the fact a new one is being revealed later this month.

* The comeback continues: the best February ever for new vehicle registrations

After a record month in September, the Tesla Model 3 has dropped, but only due to the way Tesla delivers its orders.

Crawford said that stock levels remain low, with shipments of new vehicles going through customs, entry compliance and straight onto customers.

“There remain long wait lists for popular models due to Covid-19 and microchip shortages continuing to adversely affect the sector.”

Toyota dominated hybrid sales in October, also retaining the overall market lead.

Year to date there have been 136,886 new car registrations, an increase of 37,536 units (37.8 per cent) compared to the first ten months of 2020.

Of those sales, the Ford Ranger remains the top seller overall, despite the fact a new one is being revealed later this month, followed by the Toyota RAV4 and the Toyota Corolla. The Toyota Hilux has slipped even further down into 5th position, while last month’s star, the Tesla Model 3, has dropped from view with just 95 registrations.

This is due to Tesla’s new car delivery strategy more than any other factors like a large bulk purchase or a disastrous sales month – rather than selling new cars in stock, Tesla orders all come in at once and are delivered at the same time, leading to instances like this, where September saw the Model 3 break into the top ten sellers, only to seemingly plummet in October.

The Model 3 remains the biggest selling EV in New Zealand for the year so far, however, being close to overtaking the Suzuki Swift and breaking into the top ten overall, which is deeply impressive.

As expected small and medium SUVs continue to dominate, comprising 56 per cent of sales year to date, while in October the top segments were medium SUVs with 22 per cent of the market, followed by pick up/chassis cab 4x4 with 17 per cent, and compact SUVs with a16 per cent market share.

There were 489 battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 213 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and 1,541 hybrids registered in October, representing 16 per cent of sales with some form of electrification in their drivetrain.

The top-selling all-electric models were the Hyundai Kona with 136 units, followed by the MG ZS (97 units) and the Tesla Model 3 (95 units), while the top-selling PHEVs were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (58 units) followed by the MG HS (54 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (17 units).

Hybrids continued their consistent strength with 1,541 vehicles registered in the month of October, utterly dominated by Toyota – the top-selling models were all from the Japanese brand, with the Toyota RAV4 with 738 units, followed by the Toyota Corolla (197 units) and Toyota Highlander (140 units).

Despite its Hilux shortage, Toyota remains the overall market leader with a 23 per cent share of the overall market for October with 3,123 units, followed by Ford with 15 per cent (2,088 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 8 per cent (1,094 units).

Interestingly, it seems rental fleet purchases are starting to creep back up as well, with 1,274 rental car registrations in October 2021, roughly four times the number of rental car registrations in October 2020, albeit still far below the 4,201 registered in October 2019.

The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (861 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (742 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (693 units), while the Ford Ranger retained the light commercial top spot with 1,610 units, followed by the Toyota Hilux (585 units) and the Nissan Navara in third place (383 units).