NZ Sales: June sales lowest in a decade

THE bad news for New Zealand’s car market continues with June sales figures the lowest for that month in over a decade.

Four consecutive months of declining sales saw June new car registrations total just 9423 units, 60 per cent lower than for the same month last year.

The figures show a total of 6067 Light Passenger vehicles (down 64.9 per cent), 2762 Light Commercial vehicles (down 49.3 per cent), and 594 Heavy Commercial vehicles were sold (down 12.1 per cent) when viewed against June 2023.

Expectedly, year-to-date sales are 26.2 per cent lower than the same time in 2023.

Light Passenger vehicle sales fell 36.6 per cent over the past 12 months and Light Commercial vehicles 8.5 per cent. Heavy Commercial vehicle sales bucked the trend, up 8.0 per cent.

Kiwi buyers again showed a preference for Toyota vehicles in June, that brand capturing a market share of 20.8 per cent ahead of Ford (14.0 per cent) and Mitsubishi (11.8 per cent).

Strong selling models in the Light Passenger segment include the Toyota RAV4 with 556 unit sales – all of which were hybrid – (9.2 market share points), Mitsubishi Outlander with 255 unit sales (4.2 per cent share), and Mitsubishi ASX with 252 unit sales (4.2 per cent share).

The majority of Light Passenger vehicles sold for the month of June were Medium SUVs (33.6 per cent) ahead of Compact SUVs (28.8 per cent), and Large SUVs (13.2 per cent).

New Zealand’s Motor Industry Association says most Light Passenger sales came from the business sector (49.0 per cent) with private and rental fleet sales capturing the balance (with 42.6 and 4.9 per cent respectively).

Looking at the split between motive power types for Light Passenger vehicles for the month June we note that most vehicles sold were powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs) at 53.0 per cent, up 0.3 per cent on last year.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) placed second with a 34.9 per cent share in June (up 10.2 per cent) ahead of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with 8.4 per cent (down 6.6 per cent) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) with 3.7 per cent (down 3.9 per cent).

Strong HEV sellers for June include the Toyota RAV4 (556 units), Toyota Highlander (153 units), and Suzuki Swift (135 units).

BEV favourites included the Tesla Model 3 (67 units), Hyundai Kona (62 units), and BYD Atto 3 (47 units) while PHEV podium sitters included the Mitsubishi Outlander and Eclipse Cross (each with 44 units), BYD Sealion (21 units), and Porsche Cayenne (13 units).

Moving into the Light Commercial vehicle sector and we again find the Ford Ranger on top of the ladder with monthly sales in June of 889 units (32.2 market share points). It was tailed by the Toyota HiLux with 591 unit sales (21.4 market share points) and the Mitsubishi Triton with 436 unit sales (15.8 per cent share).

As was the case with Light Passenger vehicles, most Light Commercial vehicle sales were to business users (78.6 per cent), with private and rental users listed at 19.1 and 2.4 per cent respectively.

Segmentation split for the category saw buyers favour four-wheel drive utilities (66.1 per cent) ahead of two-wheel drive utilities (19.7 per cent), and vans (11.9 per cent).

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

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

Top 10 sales by Model (June commercial):

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