Toyota New Zealand is celebrating a milestone month of sales after it sold the highest number of cars in the company’s history in June.
The carmaker sold 5403 vehicles across both Toyota and Lexus brands last month, with 5257 being new and 44 per cent of those being electrified.
An all-time sales record for the Hilux was also set with 1639 sold in June, which Toyota NZ says is all thanks to an “incredibly successful” Fieldays event earlier in the month.
Another top model was the RAV4 which saw 1496 units hit the roads, 65 per cent of which were electrified.
There’s no doubt that the newly imposed Clean Car Discount scheme settings were a major influence on Kiwi’s decisions to buy, with fees going up for utes and rebates being stripped from most hybrids as of 1 July 2023.
Those wanting to get their hands on a four-wheel drive Hilux SR5 Cruiser will now have to pay a fee of $6440 compared with the previous $3795 figure. As for the hybrid RAV4, this model loses its $2387 rebate and now falls into the ‘neutral’ zone. So it’s understandable that Kiwis flocked to the showrooms before the end of June.
However, Vice President of New Vehicles Steve Prangnell puts the carmaker’s success down to customer loyalty.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you to our customers for their passion for the Toyota brand and our great products. Toyota NZ is incredibly humbled by our customer’s loyalty and love of our cars,” he says.
“I am also very proud to report that our customer demand continues to swing towards electrified products with 44 per cent of our sales in June hybrid electric vehicles,” Prangnell adds.
For CEO Neeraj Lala, he thanks the entire team at Toyota New Zealand for the “phenomenal result”.
“I want to thank our team across the country who have put in a lot of hard work to be able to achieve this result,” Lala says.
“A huge thank you to the team from the Toyota Stores to our head office staff, and our Toyota Financial Services team.”