Hyundai Leads New Zealand Car Sales for First Time

New Zealand’s new-car market continues to be shaken by inventory shortages as a result of the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with June sales down 7.3% year-on-year to 5,365 units.

The clear winner was Hyundai, which exceeded sales expectations to take the lead in the country’s passenger-car sales for the first time ever, as traditional market-leader Toyota struggled with supply constraints.

Newly launched Hyundai Elantra makes strong showing.

Motor Industry Association data shows New Zealand’s total vehicle sales slipped 4.4% in June to 7,652 units. However, commercial-vehicle deliveries rose 3.1% to 2,287 from year-ago’s 2,218.

CEO Perry Kerr says in a statement he expects the pipeline flow to improve.

“I am heartened by the number of vehicles crossing the wharf in June, which show (from customs clearance statistics) 1,698 cars arriving from Japan, up from 920 in May – with total clearances for the month of 4,841 cars.”

The traditional strong showing at Fieldays, the biggest annual agricultural expo in the country, gave the commercial sector a strong finish to the year’s first half, with sales growing 16.8% to 10,721 units from prior-year 9,176.

The passenger-car segment’s 6-month total rose 3.3% to 31,291 units from year-ago’s 30,282.

Hyundai led June sales with 609 units, helped by the launch of its new Elantra sedan, which was exhibited at the Fieldays expo. Toyota moved up from No.6 to capture the No.2 spot with 574 deliveries. GM Holden, which led the segment in June, fell to No.3 with 564 sales.

Commercial-vehicle sales rankings remained unchanged in June with Toyota (696 units), ahead of Ford (332) and Nissan (329).

In another sign of the disruption from the Japanese disaster, the top three best-selling models for the month all were commercial vehicles. They were the Toyota Hilux (500 units), Nissan Navara (319) and Ford Ranger (217).

The top-selling passenger car was the Holden Commodore (201 units), ahead of the Suzuki Swift (196) and Hyundai i30 (170).