Outlander leads NZ new car market in June

New Zealand’s new vehicle market has experienced a mid-year dip, with registrations dropping month-on-month from 13,337 in May to 11,946 in June. 

Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency reports the Mitsubishi Outlander was the country’s most popular model for the month with 903 registrations. 

It led the Toyota Hilux (771), Kia Sportage (661), Mitsubishi ASX (435), and the Toyota RAV4 in fifth (352). The top 10 was completed by the Hyundai Kona (328), Suzuki Swift (328), Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (316), Kia Sorento (300), and Toyota Corolla (267). 

Once again, the Hilux was the sole strong performer in the commercial segment in terms of registrations. Not only was it the only light commercial vehicle in the national top 10, but it was also the only one to achieve more than 300 registrations. 

This is likely symptomatic of other distributors still utilising pre-registered stock registered prior to the arrival of the government’s Clean Car Discount levy programme for high-emission vehicles in April. 

In the case of the Ford Ranger, its low registration count is also likely due to the arrival of a new model. The first shipment of next-generation Rangers recently touched down in New Zealand, with deliveries likely to see the model vault back up the sales charts.

The Ranger ended the month in 12^th overall with 225 registrations. The Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara, both typically seen in New Zealand’s outright monthly top 10, had less than 100 registrations in June. 

Toyota led the month for overall market share with 2209 registrations, or 18.4% of the market, heading Mitsubishi (2006, 16.7%) and Kia (1408, 11.7%). 

Although Mitsubishi did not lead the market overall, it did win the battle to lead the passenger vehicle market. Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand’s chief operating officer Daniel Cook has already labelled the month a win, noting the popularity of its PHEV offerings and the brand’s commitment to local supply.

Among the other notable statistics from June was the absence of Tesla. It’s the third month in a row where the American marque hasn’t delivered any new Model 3s to market, potentially due to the brand’s ongoing production bottlenecks issues in Shanghai, caused by COVID-19 shutdowns.