April 2022 was a slow one for new car sales. A total of 9,756 vehicles were registered in the month, making it the weakest month of April since 2015.
But the sale of passenger cars and SUVs last month was the second strongest month on record, making up 8,536 of the new car registrations.
Small to medium passenger cars and SUVs are a popular choice for Kiwis at the moment, which is largely due to the sales of hybrid vehicles which are now eligible for a discount under the Clean Car Discount scheme.
Interestingly, it appears as though Kiwis are making the most of the Discount scheme, with 572 pure electric vehicles, 1,113 PHEVs and 2,145 hybrid vehicles sold for the month. Despite the fact that maximum rebates on PHEVs and pure EVs didn't change as of April 1, it's obvious that buyers were rushing out to make the most of the free money offerings. Particularly now that the Discount scheme includes hybrid and low emitting petrol vehicles.
READ MORE
As anticipated sales of petrol hybrid vehicles recovered in April with some purchasers delaying their purchase to take advantage of the rebate these vehicles now attract under the Clean Car Discount. There were 2,145 hybrids registered in the month of April, with the top-selling models being the Toyota RAV4 (525 units) followed by the Honda Jazz (461 units) and the Toyota Corolla (198 units).
View all Hybrid listings on Driven
There were 570 light vehicles and 2 heavy vehicles full battery electric vehicles registered in April. The top-selling models were the Polestar 2 (81 units) followed by the Nissan Leaf (71 units) and the Hyundai Kona (70 units).
Registrations of plug-in hybrids were strong with 1,113 units registered for the month. The top-selling models were the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (497 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (479 units) and then the MG HS (28 units).
With the weak sales of utes for the month, not surprisingly the top spots for April 2022 went to passenger and SUV segments, with the small to medium segments accounting for 78 percent of April registrations.
The top spots were the SUV medium segment with 27 percent share followed by SUV compact vehicles with 23 percent then the light passenger with 16 percent market share.
Toyota regained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 19 percent market share (1,598 units) followed by Mitsubishi with 18 percent (1,570 units) and then Suzuki with 9 percent market share (794 units).
The top-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Mitsubishi Outlander (837 units) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (716 units) and the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (544 units).