New Zealand's depressed new-vehicle market got another boost in September, increasing by 8% (868 registrations) compared to the same period last year. That's a 12.8% improvement on the average monthly sales for the year, although the overall market is still down 16.1% year-to-date on 2023 and a massive 23.5% on 2022.
"September's positive performance provides early signs of potential recovery, offering hope for a turnaround in the coming months," says the Motor Industry Association, the organisation that represents new-vehicle distributors.
The lift has come largely from rental sales: 3089 for September, nearly twice that of August - itself hailed as a breakthrough because it was up 71% on the previous month.
September's rental registrations account for almost 36% of total rental sales year-to-date, and nearly a quarter of the 11,777 total market for the month.
The top rental vehicles for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (accounting for one-third of the total at 1016), Toyota Yaris Cross and Mitsubishi Outlander.
RAV4 was also the top vehicle for the month overall in NZ, followed by the Ford Ranger (928) and Toyota Hilux (624).
Medium SUVs continued to be the most popular vehicle type (25.4% of the September market), followed by Compact SUV (23.4%) and utes (14.9%).
It's still a challenging time for electrification, with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) together accounting for just 11% of the total market. Hybrid (non plug-in) claimed 28% but internal combustion was the dominant motive power for September, with a 61% share.
NZ'S TOP 10 VEHICLES YEAR-TO-DATE
Ford Ranger (8729)
Toyota RAV4 (6309)
Toyota Hilux (5668)
Mitsubishi Triton (3544)
Mitsubishi ASX (2526)
Mitsubishi Outlander (2525)
Kia Seltos (2374)
Suzuki Swift (2128)
Nissan Navara (1556)
Ford Everest (1492)