After January’s slip, the Ford Ranger has regained the number one spot in the Motor Industry Association’s latest monthly registration figures.
Ford sold 1,111 Rangers over February, coming out ahead of the Toyota Hilux (890 units sold) and the Mitsubishi Triton (855 units sold).
With the government’s clean car legislation coming into effect later this year, it’s no surprise to see heavy-duty commercial vehicles and utes top the registration and sale charts.
Toyota still remains New Zealand’s most prominent car brand. The Japanese marque owns 18 per cent of the overall market share so far this year. Mitsubishi is second (12 per cent), and Ford holds down the third spot with 10 per cent.
The Mitsubishi Outlander was still the most popular passenger/SUV model of the month, with 546 units sold. Tesla’s Model 3 was second-best, selling 351 units, and the Suzuki Swift was third.
Overall, 12,551 new vehicles were registered in February, the highest number ever recorded for the month.
There were 689 pure electric vehicles, 388 plug-in hybrids and 1029 hybrids sold over the 28 days. MIA expects this figure to only grow as the clean car rebate scheme kicks into top gear.
No prizes for guessing the top-selling EV as the Tesla Model 3 comfortably thrashed the rest of the field. A total of 351 new Model 3s hit the streets last month. The second best-selling EV was the Hyundai Kona (54 units), and the Kia Niro (35 units) was third.
The most popular plug-in hybrid was the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. Again, it outsold the second-best PHEV, the MG HS, by a considerable margin.
As for hybrids, the top-selling models were the Toyota RAV4 (187 units), followed by the Honda Jazz (143 units) and the Toyota Yaris (126 units).
