New light commercial vehicle registrations in New Zealand were up 29% to 4871 units in February 2022, an increase of 1095 units compared to February 2021.
The top three models for the month of February were the Ford Ranger (1111 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (890 units) with the Mitsubishi Triton in third place (855 units).
Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford says the strong light commercial market in February was driven by the implementation of the Clean Car Discount scheme which comes into play on April 1, when most of these vehicles will pay a fee for exceeding the limit of 192gm of CO2 per km.
He expects the same sales pattern will occur in March, and after April 1 that light commercial vehicle sales will soften. Meanwhile sales of passenger cars and SUVs which have softened slightly, will strengthen once the new feebate comes into play.
Crawford says that the February 2022 figures are the strongest for the month of February yet. Registrations of 12,551 were 0.5% up on February 2021 (63 units). Year to date the market is down 1.2% (316 units) compared to the first two months of 2021.
Registration of 7680 passenger and SUVs for February 2022 were down 11.8% (1032 units) on February 2021.
Toyota remains the overall market leader with 16% market share (1972 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 15% (1927 units) and Ford in third spot with 11% market share (1400 units). Market share year to date, Mitsubishi (18%) is ahead of Toyota (12%) and Ford (10%).
There were 684 light vehicle and 5 heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles registered in February. The top selling models were the Tesla Model 3 (351 units) followed by the Hyundai Kona (54 units) and the Kia Niro (35 units).
There were 388 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered in February. The top selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (228 units) followed by the MG HS (57 units) and then the Mitsubishi Outlander (25 units).
There were 1020 hybrids registered in the month of January, with the top selling models being the Toyota RAV4 (187 units) followed by the Honda Jazz (143 units) and the Toyota Yaris (126 units).
SUV and passenger vehicle sales
Mitsubishi retained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 14% market share (1044 units) followed by Toyota with 12% (890 units) and then Kia with 10% market share (750 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Mitsubishi Outlander (546 units) followed by the Tesla Model 3 (351 units) and the Suzuki Swift (290 units).
Commercial vehicle sales
Ford regained the market lead with 23% market share (1141 units) followed by Toyota with 22% (1082 units) and Mitsubishi third with 18% market share (883 units).
The Ford Ranger regained the top spot for the month of February as the bestselling commercial model with 23% share (1111 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 18% share (890 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place also with 18% market share (855 units).
Market share year to date, the Ford Ranger (22%) leads followed by the Mitsubishi Triton (21%) and then the Toyota Hilux (15%).
Segmentation
The top spot for February 2022 went to the Pick Up/Chassis 4×4 segment with 21% share followed by SUV Compact vehicles with 19% then the SUV Medium with 16% market share.
Year to date there has been a small reduction on the overall share of the market for small vehicles, down from 56% for most of the 2021 to 53% for February. This reflects the strong sales of light commercial vehicles ahead of the 1 April feebate scheme (Clean Car Discount) taking effect.
