The New Zealand new vehicle market continues to track toward a slightly lower registration total than the record levels achieved in 2018.
November registration data released this week showed a total of 13,850 vehicles registered — down 509 units (3.5 per cent) on November 2018.
READ MORE: Tough October for new vehicles as Kiwi sales slump continues
‘‘Year-to-date the market is down 4.7 per cent, which confirms our expectation that the market for 2019 will be down approximately 5 per cent on 2018 volumes,’’ said David Crawford, chief executive of the Motor Industry Association.
He said the month of November reflects a steady but slightly weaker market compared to 2018. In the first 11 months of 2019 there have been 6508 fewer new vehicles registered than in the same period last year.
November registrations of 9640 passenger and SUVs were actually up 1.06 per cent (97 units) compared to 2018 volumes. Commercial vehicle registrations of 4210 were down 12.6 per cent (606 units) compared to November 2018.
While the 2019 market is expected to finish about 5 per cent lower than the record 2018 total of 161,770 units, it’s still likely to be the third largest new vehicle sales volume in New Zealand history bettered only by 2017 and 2018.
Toyota was the overall November market leader with a 22 per cent market share (3110 units), followed by Ford with 10 per cent (1360 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 8 per cent market share (1042 units).
In the passenger and SUV segments Toyota gained a 23 per cent November market share (2171 units) with Kia leaping to second spot with 9 per cent share (884 units) boosted by the first wave of registrations for its new Seltos compact SUV. Holden ranked third with 8 per cent market share (724 units).
The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (881 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (658 units) and the new Kia Seltos (400 units).
Rental cars again played a significant role in November figures with 417 rental car registrations included in the Toyota RAV4 total along with 383 units of the Toyota Corolla volume. The Ford Ranger total included 182 rental registrations.
Ford led the commercial vehicle segment with 24 per cent market share (994 units) followed by Toyota with 22 per cent (939 units) and Mitsubishi third with 9 per cent market share (394 units).
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the best-selling commercial model with 907 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 648 units and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 392 units.
There were 147 new full-electric vehicles registered during November along with 84 plug-in hybrids and 591 hybrid vehicles.
A footnote to the November figures included the best-ever month for the Chinese-owned MG brand with 133 registrations to rank 15th in the passenger/SUV segment.
SUV models continue to dominate the New Zealand market and represented 69 per cent of passenger segment registrations in November.
In recent months the New Zealand market has shown a trend towards smaller vehicles and the top segments for the month of November were SUV medium with 20 per cent share followed by SUV Compact with 17 per cent market share ahead of the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 14 per cent and Small Cars with 10 per cent.
November Top 10
1 Ford Ranger, 907
2 Toyota RAV4, 881
3 Toyota Corolla, 658
4 Toyota Hilux, 648
5 Kia Seltos, 400
6 Mitsubishi Triton, 392
7 Holden Colorado, 313
8 Mazda CX-5, 277
9 Toyota Hiace, 270
10 Mitsubishi Outlander, 269