New Zealand June 2015: Toyota RAV4 and Highlander on podium

Snow-season rentals pushes the Toyota Highlander up to #3 overall…

* See the Top 64 All-brands and Top 20 models by clicking on the title *

As the snow season is reaching its peak in New Zealand, new light vehicle sales are up 4% year-on-year to 13.030 registrations, only the fifth time the 13.000 unit-milestone is passed in June. For once passenger cars (9.021) fare much better than commercial vehicles (4.008) at +6% vs. +0.1%. Sales to rental companies are up 18% to 1.690 from 1.437 a year ago, as fleets stocked up on snow-season vehicles. So far in 2015 rentals are up 44% to 5.454 units, from 3.800 for the same period in 2014. The overall market is up 6% to 65.574 units. Toyota has a bumper month at 22.6% share vs. 17.6% year-to-date while Holden (10.5%) and Ford (9.8%) match their year-to-date market shares, Mitsubishi is up 3 spots on May to #4, above Mazda, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen.

…while the Toyota RAV4 is up to #2.

The Ford Ranger confirms it is New Zealand’s new favourite vehicle with 728 sales and 5.6%, but this month’s ranking is totally influencd by snow-season rental vehicles: the Toyota RAV4 jumps up 12 spots on May to 2nd place overall with 613 sales and 4.7% share (70% of which are sales to rental companies) vs. 2.7% year-to-date while the Toyota Highlander leaps from outside the May Top 25 directly to third position with 489 units and 3.8% share, 77.5% being rentals and pushing the nameplate to #18 year-to-date at 1.6%. Other great performers in June include the Mitsubishi Outlander up 10 ranks to #9, the Isuzu D-Max up to #13, the Mazda BT-50 is up to #14 and the Toyota Prado is up to #22.

Previous month: New Zealand May 2015: Ford Ranger cements newfound leadership

One year ago: New Zealand June 2014: Toyota Hilux reclaims top spot year-to-date

Full June 2015 Top 64 All-brands and Top 20 models below.