NZ September registrations off by a quarter

New Zealand’s Motor Industry Association said September 2020 registrations of new vehicles reflected “a weaker economy affected by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic”.

September registrations were down 24.9% year on year at 10,902 vehicles. 

“Year to date the market is down 23.8%, which is consistent with recent months’ data confirming our expectations that 2020 will finish about 25% down on 2019 volume,” the MIA said.

Local importers sold 243 pure electric vehicles, 54 PHEVs and 927 hybrid vehicles in September. The Tesla Model 3 performed well with 139 registrations.

The market overall to the end of September was down 23.8% to 87,474.

Registrations of 7,735 passenger and SUV models for September 2020 were down 25.1% while commercial vehicle registrations fell 24.6% to 3,167.

The top three models for the month of September were the Ford Ranger (663 units), Toyota RAV4 (464) and Mitsubishi Triton (360).

Toyota remained overall market leader with 15% market share followed by Ford (9%) and Mitsubishi (9%). 

Toyota was also market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 16% share followed by Kia (10%) and Suzuki (8%).

Tesla made it into the top ten with 158 units registered for the month. 

The top selling passenger and SUV models were the Toyota RAV4 (464 units) followed by the Suzuki Swift (290) and Kia Sportage (285).

Ford retained commercial vehicles market lead with 25% followed by Toyota (13%) and Mitsubishi (11%).

The Ford Ranger remained best selling commercial model with a 21% share followed by the Mitsubishi Triton (11%) and the Toyota Hilux (8%). 

Smaller vehicles dominated the market in September.

The top spot was held by SUV medium vehicles with 22% share followed by SUV Compact (19%) and Pick Up/Chassis 4×4 (13%).