Cars Outpace CVs in New Zealand Sales Race
Commercial vehicles’ first-quarter sales slump is blamed on tight supplies of pickups sourced from Thailand, which is still recovering from last year’s disastrous floods.
New Zealand sales of new cars climbed 6.9% to 6,499 units in March, but commercial-vehicle’s failed to gain traction.
Motor Industry Assn. CEO Perry Kerr says CV deliveries slipped 0.5% to 2,029 units.
“New passenger-car sales continued with their strong start to the year with the first quarter a very healthy 14.6%, or almost 2,500 units, up on 2011,” Kerr says in a statement.
“On the commercial side of business, the March result was almost on par with last year. However, on a year-to-date basis, the market is down 5.8% (291 units), which can be directly attributed to the lack of stock of utes (pickups) – the majority being sourced from Thailand, which is still rebuilding after last year’s massive floods.”
In the new-car segment the top three sellers in March and year-to-date were Toyota, 1,005 units and 3,517, respectively; Hyundai, 674 and 2,074; and GM Holden, 659 and 2,053.
The Holden Cruze was No.1 in deliveries for the month with 229 units, followed by the Suzuki Swift (227) and Hyundai i30 (206).
Toyota led the CV segment in March with 504 units, ahead of Ford (260) and Nissan (254). Year-to-date, Toyota has sold 1,142, followed Nissan (609) and Ford (589).
Among individual CV models, the Toyota Hilux topped the list with 280 deliveries, ahead of the Nissan Navara (242) and Toyota Hiace (209).
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