Kiwis bought more cars in 2022 than ever before

Thursday, 5 January 2023

The all-new Mitsubishi Outlander was the most popular new passenger car in New Zealand last year.

Preliminary new-vehicle registration data released by the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has revealed that New Zealanders purchased a record number of passenger vehicles in 2022.

According to figures released this week, a total of 116,370 new passenger vehicles (not including utes and other commercial vehicles) were registered last year. This represents a 3.9% year-on-year lift, with 2021 having previously held the sales record.

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Although the figures show a strong result for the nation’s new vehicle distributors, they also in part tell a story of dealers honouring historic pre-orders made in 2021, as the industry continues to deal with delays caused by global supply shortages.

Mitsubishi ended up defeating Toyota to be the country’s most popular passenger-car brand for the year, narrowly edging Toyota having registered 17,257 vehicles to the latter’s 17,003 vehicles (a difference of just 254 units).

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Commercial vehicle sales dipped in 2022, dropping by 8% from 53,216 to 48,468. This didn’t stop utes from leading the charts, however, with the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux once again ending the year as the first and second most popular new vehicles in the country.

Waka Kotahi’s preliminary numbers detail that a total of 11,574 Rangers and 9,787 Hilux’ were registered last year. The most popular passenger car for 2021, the Mitsubishi Outlander, ended the year third outright with 9,105 registrations.

Tesla’s Model Y ended up as the most popular new fully electric vehicle for 2022, with 4,226 registrations. The American EV-specialist marque capped off the year with a bang, with the Model Y and Model 3 being the first and second most popular new passenger cars in December.

The drop in commercial vehicle sales likely stems from the introduction of the Clean Car Discount’s feebate widget, commonly referred to by critics as the ‘ute tax’.

Introduced in April, it saw utes like the Ranger, Hilux, and other nameplates with a high CO2 output cop a levy at the point of registration. Levies accumulated through the feebate scheme are used to offset rebates paid to EVs, hybrids, and low-emission petrol vehicles.

Waka Kotahi’s preliminary figures are expected to be formally confirmed by the Motor Industry Association later this week.