New vehicle sales fall 23% in New Zealand

The official New Zealand new car registration statistics are in – showing the tough COVID-19 market in 2020 was down 22.7% year-on-year.

Overall registrations dropped a massive 35,121 units to 119,620 for the year.

In a reversal of the Australian new vehicle market, the Ford Ranger was the best-selling overall vehicle in 2020, followed closely by the Toyota Hilux.

Assuming an average of NZD $3000 in margin, finance and insurance commissions and accessory sales per vehicle, those figures represent in excess of NZD $100 million in turnover lost to the dealer segment of the trade alone for the year.

Passenger registrations were down 23.3% for the year to 80,860 units. Commercial registrations fell 22.7% to 119,620.

Toyota topped the passenger car segment with 12,795 registrations, followed by Kia on 7985, Mitsubishi on 6479, Mazda on 6289 and Suzuki on 5935.

The most popular passenger car for 2020 was the Toyota RAV4 on 5350, followed by the Kia Sportage on 2916, Kia Seltos on 2611, Toyota Corolla on 2570 and Mazda CX-5 on 2569.

In commercials, Ford was the top brand on 9124 vehicles, followed by Toyota on 8004 units, Mitsubishi on 3842, Holden on 2533 and Nissan on 2376.

The Ford Ranger was the top commercial model for the year – and top vehicle overall – on 7986 vehicles. The Toyota Hilux took second on 5808, followed by the Mitsubishi Triton on 3694, Holden Colorado on 2495 and Nissan Navara on 2376.

December registrations were – short of the lockdown months – some of the worst of the year. Registrations totalled 5572 units, down 31.75% from a year ago.

Toyota New Zealand was hit hard for the month, down 63.5% to 996 passenger units from 2730 a year ago, its market share 17.9%.

While most of this comes from its pull away from rental fleets, a business which is now largely dead on its own, supply now appears to be hitting its otherwise successful transition to become the brand private buyers and business choose first.

Toyota New Zealand chief executive Neeraj Lala still says the brand is ending the year on a high – in a statement released prior to the release of registration statistics.

“Excluding our rental volume, our market share has improved by 2.4%, which is a great result despite the challenges of 2020,” says Lala.

Mitsubishi was second for the month on 684 units, up 2.7% year-on-year, while Mazda jumped two spots to take third on 616 units.

An interesting appearance in the top ten was MG on 199 – giving it eighth spot.

For December, the Toyota RAV4 replaced the Corolla as the top model on 387 vehicles, followed by the Mitsubishi ASX on 327 and the Mazda CX-5 on 326.

Commercial registrations for the month were – relatively – not bad, down just 6.3% to 2811 units.

Ford leads in that segment, up 31% for the month to 719 units and a market share of 25.6%.

Toyota took second on 696 units, down 10.5% and Mitsubishi was third on 251 down 25.7%.

The Ford Ranger was the top model on 662 units, followed by the Toyota Hilux on 443 and Nissan Navara on 242.