Analysing October 2020 New Vehicles Sales Downward Trend
Posted on 3rd November 2020 by Russell Phillips
With Covid-19 causing border closures the NZ rental car fleet is running at heavily reduced levels. Stats NZ reported a record 3.82 million visitors who stepped onto New Zealand shores in the March 2018 year. Given much of 2020 from March onwards has seen hard border closures it is hardly surprising new vehicle registrations are down. Reports continue to be positive from the regions although towards the end of October dealers spoken to by Automotive Employment NZ experienced softer trading.
The Motor industry Associations monthly report follows:
Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that October 2020 registrations of new vehicles continues the downward trend for 2020. October registrations came in at 20.6% below October 2019 with 11,876 vehicles registered, down 3,089 units on the same month last year.
“Year to date the market is down 23.5%, which is consistent with recent months data confirming our expectations that 2020 will finish about 25% down on 2019 volumes.”
Key points
- Overall October 2020 registrations of 11,876 vehicles were down 20.6% (3,089 units) on the same month in 2019.
- There were 107 pure electric vehicles, 60 PHEV’s and 787 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.
- The market overall to the end of October is down 23.5% (30,403 units) on the first ten months of 2019.
- Registration of 8,296 passenger and SUVs for October 2020 were down 22.0% (2,336 units) on 2019 volumes, while commercial vehicle registrations of 3,580 were down 17.4% (753 units) compared to October 2019.
- The top three models for the month of October were the new model Toyota Hilux (731 units), followed by the Ford Ranger (686 units) with the Kia Sportage in third place (488 units).
Market leaders in October
Toyota remains the overall market leader with 17% market share (2,070 units), followed by Ford with 11% (1288 units) and Kia closely behind in third spot also with 9% market share (1,276 units).
SUV and passenger vehicle sales
Kia knocked Toyota out of the market leader position for passenger and SUV registrations with 15% market share (1,276 units) followed by Toyota with 13% (1,117 units) and then Mazda with 8% market share (677 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Kia Sportage (488 units) followed by the Kia Seltos (471 units) and the Toyota Corolla (315 units).
Commercial vehicle sales
Toyota regained the market lead with 27% market share (953 units) followed by Ford with 24% (868 units) and Mitsubishi third with 10% market share (354 units).
The Toyota Hilux regained the top spot for the month of October as the bestselling commercial model with 20% share (731 units) followed by the Ford Ranger with 19% share (686 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 8% market share (282 units).
Smaller vehicles dominated the market in October
The top spot went to the SUV medium vehicles with 23% share followed by SUV Compact with 18% market share and then the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 13% share.