New Zealand Sees Best January as Sales Rise

The New Zealand new-vehicle industry continues with its pedal to the metal, following up on a record 2015 with a best-ever January.

Motor Industry Assn. data shows January sales rose 1.9% year-on-year to 11,893 units.

MIA CEO David Crawford says the month’s result was achieved despite a 1.2% fall in the sale of passenger vehicles to 8,899 units. The drop was offset by the commercial-vehicle segment, which rose 12.7% to 2,994 units from a year-ago’s 2,657.

While new-vehicle sales have started 2016 where they left off in 2015, the remainder of this year is expected to slightly soften, Crawford says.

Toyota continued its New Zealand market dominance, starting the year with sales of 2,243 units for 19% market share.

That was seven percentage points ahead of its nearest rivals, Ford and GM Holden, which had 12% market share (1,444 units) and 10% market share (1,244), respectively.

Toyota remained the passenger-vehicle market leader with a 20% market share (1,774 units), followed by Holden with 11% (964 units) and Mazda with 10% (855 units).

The Toyota Corolla was the top-selling passenger model with 719 units, helped by 492 rental-car sales, followed by the Toyota RAV4 with 391 units and the Holden Commodore with 366 units.

Ford led the CV market with 23% market share (699 units), followed by Toyota with 16% (469) and Holden with 9% (280).

The Ford Ranger continued as the top-selling CV in with a 22% market share (661 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 10% (300) and the Holden Colorado with 9% (266).

Crawford says the makeup of the fleet continues to evolve, with sales in the SUV segment continuing to grow with 33% market share in January.

“This is followed by pickups/chassis cabs with 18% market share and small passenger cars (share of) 16%, down 3% on January 2015,” he says.