The Ford Ranger has proved itself as New Zealand’s most popular vehicle in August 2023 as new vehicle sales softened for the month.
A total of 9808 vehicles were registered last month, a 33.2 per cent decrease on the same time last year and 22.4 per cent lower than the monthly average for the first eight months of 2023.
The Motor Industry Association (MIA) says the low number has been caused by the market continuing to rebalance itself after record registrations in June, when buyers rushed to dealerships before Clean Car Discount changes came into effect at the start of July.
Other factors affecting August’s soft results are tough economic conditions, such as higher interest rates, tighter lending, continued high inflation impacting people’s buying power, and uncertainty coming up to the next election.
The top three models registered in August were the Ford Ranger at 842 units, the Toyota RAV4 at 773, and the Toyota Hilux at 465.
The market leader for August was Toyota with a 24.9 per cent share, Ford with 14.7 per cent, and Kia with 8.2 per cent.
A total of 863 fully electric vehicles were registered last month, with the BYD Atto 3 being the most popular (131 units), followed by the MG ZS and Tesla Model Y which tied at 72 units each.
In the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) camp, 780 units were sold overall which consisted of the Mitsubishi Outlander (261 units), the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (144 units), and the Kia Sorrento (131 units).
Hybrid registrations came to 2417 units in August, with the top three models being the Toyota RAV4 (760 units), Toyota Highlander (182 units), and the Toyota Corolla (172 units).
In terms of market share, the top three segments for August were medium-sized SUVs at 27.3 per cent, followed by compact SUVs at 18.6 per cent, and large SUVs at 9.9 per cent. MIA notes that the smaller to medium segments made up 58 per cent of the overall market.
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