NZ sales: Annual record draws closer

NEW Zealand’s new-vehicle market remains on track for a fifth consecutive annual sales record with just one month left to go in 2018, with 150,620 registrations made during the year to date representing a 1.4 per cent uptick.

 

As a result, NZ Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive officer David Crawford remained upbeat about the year-to-date sales, despite the slow growth.

 

“While growth in the new-vehicle market remains only marginally up on 2017, the outturn year to date is encouraging,” he said.

 

The 14,359 vehicles sold in November represented a 1.6 per cent drop over the corresponding, record month in 2017. As such, it was the second-best tally yet for the 11th month of the year.

 

Sales of passenger cars and SUVs slid by 7.3 per cent in November, to 9543 units, while light-commercial vehicles (LCVs) improved their volume, up 11.9 per cent to 4816 units.

 

With a market share of 16.2 per cent, mid-size SUVs were the most popular vehicles last month, followed by pick-up/cab-chassis 4x4s (15.7%) and small SUVs (12.6%).

 

Despite a 4.0 per cent dip in volume, Toyota led from the front in November, claiming a 21.6 per cent market share with 3099 sales.

 

The HiLux ute (741, +19.5%), Corolla small car (739, -9.2%) and RAV4 mid-size SUV (512, -21.0%) claimed second, third and fourth positions respectively on the best-sellers ladder, while the 10th-placed Highlander/Kluger large SUV (273, -38.7%) and 11th-placed HiAce mid-size van (261) were also in the conversation.

 

Strong rental sales contributed towards a significant portion of the HiLux (126 units), Corolla (413), RAV4 (388), Highlander/Kluger (203) and HiAce’s (83) volumes. The Yaris light car (125) and LandCruiser Prado (80) were also popular among hire-car companies.

 

A declining Ford (1437 units, -7.1%) finished in second position on the back of its Ranger ute (994, +13.7%), which was the best-selling model in the market, helped by 111 rental sales.

 

Similarly, Holden backtracked (1397 units, -6.2%) but held onto third position, with its sixth-placed Colorado ute (427, +26.0%) and 15th-placed Captiva mid-size SUV (198, -3.0%) shouldering the load.

 

An improving Mitsubishi (1114 units, +6.2%) made some noise in fourth position, owing to a strong showing from its fifth-placed Triton ute (487, +37.2%) and the 14th-placed ASX small SUV (247).

 

Fifth-placed Hyundai put in the most impressive effort among the top brands, with its sales up 36.4 per cent, to 921 units. Its Accent light car was the ninth best-selling model with 274 sales, of which 265 came from rental companies.

 

Mazda (910 units, -16.7%) claimed sixth position and recorded the top 10’s largest drop in volume, with its CX-5 mid-size SUV (251, -35.8%) responsible for the vast majority of this shrinkage.

 

Seventh-placed Nissan (694 units, +9.6%) was a solid performer, mainly thanks to its Navara ute (286) finishing in seventh position, while Kia (592, +21.1%) and its Sportage mid-size SUV (282, +31.2%) were one step behind in both regards.

 

Ninth-placed Suzuki (509, +4.1%) and 10th-placed Volkswagen (489, +14.3%) rounded out the top-10 brands, with the former’s Swift light hatch finishing in 12th position with 258 sales (+31.6%).

 

In the year-to-date sales races, Toyota (29,361 units) and Ford’s Ranger (9300) comfortably lead their rivals in the brand and model stakes respectively.

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