New Vehicle Sales Overcome Challenges

Media Release

9 January 2012

New Vehicle Sales Overcome Challenges

The New Zealand new vehicle market was up 5.2% on 2010, with total sales of 84,640 units, broken down by passenger cars (64,019 verse 62,029 – up 3.2%) and commercials (20,621 verse 18,424 – up 11.9%).

“This was an outstanding result” said Mr Kerr, Chief Executive Officer of the Motor Industry Association. “2011 was a year of significant challenges for the industry. Natural disasters, both locally and overseas (Japan and Thailand) coupled with a subdued economic environment, as well as the Rugby World Cup (though capturing the nation’s attention took customers away from new vehicle show rooms) meant it was always going to be a tough year.”

Looking at the December result, new passenger car sales were up 17.1% on the same month 2011, while commercial registrations were down 17.6% in the same period – this result influenced by shortages of light commercial vehicle stock from Thailand. Toyota dominated passenger car registrations taking out just under 39% of the market (2,069 registrations) with Holden in second place with 11% (580 registrations) and Ford third with 8% (431 registrations). In the commercial segment Toyota retained top position with 301 registrations (26% of the market), Ford second place with 177 registrations and Holden in third with 88 registrations.

Toyota dominated the top places in the individual model stakes taking out the first five places – with Corolla (743 units) Yaris (320) RAV4 (275) Highlander (268) and Camry (266). The Toyota Hilux remained the top selling commercial vehicle (136 units) followed by the Ford Ranger (130) and the Toyota Hiace (128).

For the full year 2011 Toyota retained market leadership with 17,534 registrations giving it a dominant 20.7% market share. In second place Ford achieved 8,656 registrations (10.2%) with Holden in third position with 852 registrations (9.5%). Second and third positions were reversed from 2010 registrations.

In the passenger car segment Toyota held onto top place with 11,796 registrations followed by Holden with 6,662 registrations. Hyundai achieved third position (6,072 registrations) moving up two places from 2010. There were no changes in the luxury car ranking with Audi remaining in top place (1,331), followed by BMW (1,217) and Mercedes-Benz (981).

New Zealand’s top selling model continues to be the Toyota Corolla (4,166) followed by the Suzuki Swift (2,892) with the Holden Commodore third position (2,381). The Hyundai I30 moved up from ninth top selling model in 2010 to fourth place. For the year the Toyota Hilux was the top selling light commercial followed by the Nissan Navara and Ford Ranger. These positions remain unchanged from 2010.

It was a mixed bag when comparing actual sales numbers (2011 verse 2010). Stock shortages arising from the Japanese and subsequent Tsunami affected a number of the Japanese marques with Toyota, Mazda and Subaru all down. On the plus side (out of the top 15) Hyundai, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Kia all recorded sizeable increases. The luxury car market also performed well with all major marques (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Lexus) ahead of the industry average of 3.2%. The Chinese marques of Chery and Great Wall also recorded sizeable increases though their overall market penetration is still small.

ENDS.

© Scoop Media