New Zealand's new vehicle market may be showing some signs of softening – with registrations down 5.5% year-on-year. However, there’s no sign that our love affair with utility vehicles is dwindling, with utes making up five of the top six most registered models. 

The top utes include the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton, Holden Colorado and the Nissan Navara.  These five ute models make up over 20% of registrations so far this year.

The Ranger retains its market lead with a total of 5,077 units registered; however, this figure is down 1.8% on last year. In second is the traditionally popular Hilux, with 3,505 units registered.

The Mitsubishi Triton ranks third with a total of 3,046 units registered, up by an impressive 34% on last year, aided by the launch of its updated model.

“Since launching the new Triton in January 2019 we’ve been overwhelmed by the feedback we’ve received from customers. The sales results so far have exceeded our expectations – it would have been unthinkable a couple of years back that Triton would now be sitting in third position,” said a Mitsubishi spokesperson.

In fourth is the Holden Colorado, which dropped from third position this time last year, despite a 9% increase in sales.

Two winners at the 2018 AA Driven NZ Car of the Year Awards also featured in the top 10 most registered models. The Toyota Corolla, which took home the title of Safest Car, ranked fifth with 2073 units registered, and the Suzuki Swift, which won the coveted People’s Choice Award, ranked 10^th with 1,526 units registered.

Each of the top 10 has been awarded five stars by ANCAP, demonstrating the importance Kiwis place on vehicle safety when choosing a new vehicle.

Popular SUVs

While utes may dominate the top 10 and make up 27% of new registrations, SUVs are still by far the most popular with a 43% share.  Top selling SUVs this year include the all new Toyota RAV 4, the Kia Sportage and the Mazda CX-5.

Electric vehicles

New Electric Vehicle (EV) registrations continued to grow, climbing 68% from this time last year to 625 – the main contributor being the long-range Hyundai Kona with 216 registrations.

New Zealand’s total EV fleet (new and used) currently stands at 14,867, which is still some way away from reaching the Government’s 2021 target of 64,000. However, if the Government's recent Clean Car proposal  to offer discounts of up to $8,000 for new imported zero-emission vehicles is legislated,  we could see more rapid growth from 2021 when it comes into force.

Top 10 NZ new vehicles year to date (June 30, 2019):