New Zealand April 2022: Market dives -25.6% due to LCV crunch, Mitsubishi Outlander best-seller

The Mitsubishi Outlander is #1 in New Zealand in April.

9,756 new vehicles found a New Zealand home in April, that’s a harsh -25.6% year-on-year fall which means the year-to-date tally is now up just 3.4% on the same period in 2021 to 56,800. For once Passenger Cars are up this month at +58.9% to 2,902 while SUVs drop -19.3% to 5,623. The main culprit of this month’s market decline is Light Commercials collapsing -80.6% to just 739 units. This is because many LCVs were pre-registered in March to avoid new pollution penalties starting in April. Year-to-date, Passenger Cars are up 16.7% to 9,778, SUVs down -8.4% to 26,374 and LCVs up 17% to 18,311.

In the brands ranking, Toyota (-22%) reclaims the top spot off Mitsubishi (+2%) at 17.9% vs. 16.6% but the later still leads the YTD charts by a significant margin: Mitsubishi (+55.4%) has a 17.5% share so far this year vs. 13.5% for Toyota (-15.1%). Suzuki (+21.7%) shoots up 10 spots on March to land in third place overall with 8.2% share, almost double its YTD level of 4.2%. Hyundai (-9.5%) is up one rank to #4 but the most impressive carmaker near the top this month is Honda (+154.5%) up 11 spots to #5 and 5.7% share vs. 3.1% YTD. Mazda (-33%) suffers at #6 above Kia (-57.2%) and Ford (-71%) faring even worse. MG (+36.1%) is the only additional gainer in the Top 10 and is back up to #9. Just outside the 10 best-sellers, Skoda (+100%) doubles its sales and delivers a 14 spot uptick to #11. Mini (+54.8%), Porsche (+86.3%) and Cupra (+350%) also impress further down just as newcomer Polestar climbs to an impressive 22nd spot with 0.8% share.

Model-wise, with LCVs pretty much out of the picture, we have a rather different order this month. The Mitsubishi Outlander (+57.6%) is the best-selling vehicle in the country for the second time this year after last January with 8.6% share. The Toyota RAV4 (+50.1%) comes in second place ahead of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (+357.1%) up 11 spots on March to #3. The Honda Jazz surges from outside the March Top 25 directly to 4th place with 5% share vs. 1.8% so far this year. The Suzuki Swift (+68.9%) is also up significantly and gains 14 ranks on last month to #5. The Ford Ranger (-72%) collapses but snaps the year-to-date lead off the Mitsubishi Triton (-97.3%) reduced to just 10 units this month. Other great performers include the Hyundai Ioniq (#9), Toyota Highlander (#13), Yaris Cross (#14) and Suzuki Baleno (#15).

Previous month: New Zealand March 2022: Mitsubishi (+104.5%) back on top in euphoric market (+36%)

One year ago: New Zealand April 2021: Kia Stonic surges to #3 in market ip 23.7% on 2 years ago

Full April 2022 Top 65 All-brands and Top 15 models below.