NZ Sales: Rental market bolsters sales

NEW ZEALAND has witnessed a bumper sales month in November, helped in no small part by a significant number of rental market registrations.

Of the 14,519 new vehicles purchased and registered in New Zealand across November, some 4466 were destined for rental fleets.

This marks the highest number of monthly rental registrations in four years, contributing to 30.7 per cent of the month’s overall tally.

New Zealand Motor Industry Association chief executive Aimee Wiley says the numbers are a welcomed boost for the industry, which remains impacted by the soon-to-be-lifted Clean Car Discount program.

Overall, November passenger car registrations remain 7.1 per cent lower than the same time last year, and 11.1 per cent down on November 2021 figures. Commercial vehicle registrations are down 32.0 per cent on November 2022 and 40.9 per cent on November 2021.

In November 11,497 light passenger vehicles were registered, followed by 2169 light commercial models and 853 heavy commercial models.

Last month's top three overall market leaders were Toyota with a 24.9 per cent share (3615 units), followed by Ford with 13.0 per cent (1894 units) and Mitsubishi with 8.0 per cent (1160 units).

The most popular vehicle segments were medium SUV (32.7 per cent), compact SUV (18.5 per cent) and small passenger vehicle (12.6 per cent).

Interestingly, the spike in rental vehicle registrations inflated the light passenger segment overall, driving a year-on-year increase of 2.9 per cent (or 322 units).

Passenger vehicle and SUV winners for the month of November include Toyota with a 26.3 per cent share (3018 units), Mitsubishi with 9.3 per cent (1069 units) and MG with 7.8 per cent (900 units).

Best-selling models for the month of November included the Toyota RAV4 (1419 units), Mitsubishi Outlander (558 units) and Tesla Model Y (544 units).

New energy vehicles remain a popular choice across the ditch, with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) taking an 18.5 per cent share of the market in November (or 2692 units), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) an 8.0 per cent share (or 1164 units) and hybrids (HEVs) 23.6 per cent (or 3426 units).

Internal combustion engine vehicles with no electrification filled the remaining 49.8 per cent share (7237 units).

New Zealand BEV buyers favoured the Tesla Model Y in November, buying 533 units (21.0 per cent share), followed by the MG 4 with 496 units (18.1 per cent) and the BYD Atto 3 with 338 units (13.1 per cent).

PHEV purchasers continue to favour Mitsubishi products, with the Eclipse Cross (314 units and 27.0 per cent share) and Outlander (277 units and 23.8 per cent share) dominating the segment over the MG HS (239 units and 20.5 per cent share).

Toyota scored a hat trick in the HEV segment, with the RAV4 (657 units and 19.2 per cent share), Corolla (485 units and 14.2 per cent share) and Corolla Cross (370 units and 10.8 per cent share) crowding the podium.

On the commercial vehicle front, 3022 units were registered across November, down 32.0 per cent on the same month last year. On a year-to-date basis, commercial vehicle registrations are down 17.3 per cent (or 7811 units) compared with the same period in 2022.

Ford took the market lead for commercial vehicles in November 2023 with a 37.6 per cent market share (1135 units), followed by Toyota with 19.8 per cent (597 units) and LDV with 4.5 per cent (136 units).

The top-three selling commercial models for the month of November were the Ford Ranger (1083 units), followed by the Toyota HiLux (420 units) and Toyota HiAce (169 units).

Top 10 sales by Make (November passenger, SUV and commercial):

Top 10 sales by Model (November passenger and SUV):

Top 10 sales by Model (November commercial):

*All figures are supplied courtesy of the Motor Industry Association of New Zealand.