A weaker commercial vehicle sector is the main reason for a 2.2 per cent year-on-year decline in new vehicle sales revealed by February registration data released this morning.
With 11,438 new vehicles registered in February, the New Zealand market was down 2.2 per cent (261 units) compared to February 2019.
‘‘The month of February was up for passenger and SUV vehicles by 4.4 per cent (331 units) over February 2019, however, it was down 14.4 per cent (592 units) for commercial vehicles,’’ said Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive David Crawford.
‘‘While it was pleasing to see the passenger and SUV market remain strong it is worrying that the commercial sector continues to be down, the fifth month in a row.’’
The February market comprised 7911 new passenger and SUV registrations along with 3527 new commercial vehicle registrations.
Toyota was the industry leader in February achieving a 17 per cent market share (1892 units), followed by Ford with 11 per cent (1222 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 10 per cent market share (1106 units).
Of note in the February data, Holden dropped to ninth position in the wake its recent announcement of pending market withdrawal with just 4 per cent of overall volume (457 units). Holden had finished 2019 in the fourth position.
Kia is the major brand showing the strongest performance so far this year.
In 2019 the Korean marque ranked number six in passenger/SUV sales and achieved 7 per cent market share. In the first two months of this year Kia sales — driven by the Sportage and new Seltos SUV models — represent a 10 per cent share of the passenger/SUV segment to rank second behind Toyota’s 14 per cent share.
SUV models dominated the February passenger vehicle segment with the leading models being the Toyota RAV4 (419 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (304 units) and the Mitsubishi ASX (291 units). The most popular traditional car models were the Suzuki Swift and Toyota Corolla which ranked only eighth and ninth respectively in the passenger/SUV segment.
While commercial vehicle sales fell the Ford Ranger retained the top spot as both the best-selling commercial model and market-leading model overall with 728 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 580 units and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 342 units.
The MIA reports a steady increase in registrations of electrified vehicles. Pure electric vehicle registrations totalled 124 units in February with 113 plug-in hybrids and 551 hybrid vehicles. The figures for February 2019 were 83 EVs, 110 PHEVs and 266 hybrids and February 2020 was the fifth consecutive month in which hybrid sales had exceeded 500 units monthly.
Mercedes-Benz led the luxury brands with 189 registrations in February ahead of BMW with 144 and Audi 142.
Smaller vehicles dominated the February market with the top three segments for the month being SUV Medium vehicles with 20 per cent market share (2288 units) followed by SUV Compact also with 20 per cent market share (2231 units) and the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 15 per cent (1724 units).
Once popular Large Cars accounted for only 1 per cent market share (100 units) last month.
February Top-10:
1 Ford Ranger, 728
2 Toyota Hilux, 580
3 Toyota RAV4, 419
4 Mitsubishi Triton, 342
5 Mitsubishi Outlander, 304
6 Mitsubishi ASX, 291
7 Kia Seltos, 281
8 Nissan Navara, 265
9 Nissan Qashqai, 244
10 Mazda CX-5, 233