New Zealand’s new car market has remained soft in September with 10,909 units registered this month. According to the Motor Industry Association, the result is 26.7% lower than September 2022 (14,878 units), 20.0% lower than the monthly average for 2022 (13,641 units), and 12.4% lower than the monthly average so far for 2023.
MIA Chief Executive Aimee Wiley says this was caused by “both tougher economic conditions and continued uncertainty for the future of the Clean Car Discount, currently hinging upon the upcoming election result.”
“Such uncertainty considerably impacted consumer demand in September. It comes as no surprise that product attracting rebates accelerated significantly, whilst demand for product attracting fees slumped,” Ms. Wiley added.
Light Passenger Vehicles (including SUVs)
Passenger registrations of 8,150 are 23.1% (2,451 units) lower than September 2022. On a year-to-date basis, passenger vehicles are down 6.3% (5,431 units) compared to the same period in 2022.
Segment leaders Toyota retained the market lead for Passenger and SUV registrations in September with 23.1% market share (1,885 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 9.9% (808 units) and Tesla with 9.3% market share (760 units).
The top selling for the month were the Tesla Model Y (697 units), Toyota RAV 4 (683 units), and Toyota Yaris Cross (316 units).
Meanwhile, there has been a significant shift toward electrification in September. There were 2,029 BEV units sold with the top models being the Tesla Model Y (697 units), MG 4 (250 units) followed by BYD Atto 3 (136 units).
A spike in consumer demand resulted in the BEV segment share jumping from an average of 13.9% (since January 2022) to a staggering 24.9% in September according to the MIA.
Furthermore, there were 768 units of PHEVs registered this month with the top 3 being the Mitsubishi Outlander (220 units), followed by Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (157 units) and the Mini Countryman (69 units).
PHEVs comprised 9.4% of the light passenger segment in September, up from a prior average of 6.7%.
For HEVs, there were 2,190 units registered and the top 3 models were the Toyota RAV4 (495 units), followed by the Toyota Corolla (269 units) and the Ford Escape (154 units). HEVs comprised 26.9% of the light passenger segment in September, up from a prior average of 19.3%.
3,163 units of internal combustion engine vehicles comprised 38.8% of the light passenger segment in September.
The top three segments were the SUV medium segment (28.9% share), followed by the SUV compact segment (18.9% share) and the small segment (7.9%). The small to medium segments comprised 64.4% of the total market.
Light & Heavy Commercial Vehicles
Commercial registrations of 2,759 are 35.5% lower than September 2022 (1,518 units). On a year-to-date basis, registrations are 14.4 % down (5,312 units) compared to the same period in 2022.
Toyota took the market lead with 27.5% market share (759 units) followed by Ford with 23.5% (647 units) and Mitsubishi third with 7.2% market share (198 units).
The top three models for the month of September were the Ford Ranger (605 units), followed by Toyota Hilux (540 units), and Mitsubishi Triton (198 units).
31 units of light commercial BEVs were registered in September (229 units year-to-date). Meanwhile, 7 units of heave commercial BEVs were registered in September (98 units year-to-date).
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