New Zealand March 2024: Mitsubishi (+76.6%) defies devastated market

Mitsubishi Triton sales are back up 124% year-on-year in March.

In March New Zealand new vehicle sales sink -27.3% year-on-year to 11,616 units. This is a particularly poor result given March 2023 was already down -24% on the year prior. The Q1 volume is off -10.7% to 33,878. Passenger Cars are down -34.8% to just 1,509 sales, SUVs are also off -34.8% to 6,048 and lift commercials fare better at -5.9% to 3,367. Year-to-date, Passenger Cars are down -34.6% to 3,937, SUVs off -16.4% to 17,599 and LCVs actually up 14.1% to 10,219.  

Toyota (-9.8%) resists much better than the market to 20.6% share, by far the most popular brand in the country. The surprise of the month is Mitsubishi shooting up 76.6% to 12.8% share, overtaking Ford (-22.3%) to snap the 2nd place in the brands ranking. To be fair, its March 2023 sales were down -76.4% on the year prior. GWM (+469.9%) also posts a surreal gain and advances to #8. Kia (-22.9%) and Nissan (-25.7%) manage to keep their losses below the market evolution but it’s not the case for Hyundai (-68.4%), Suzuki (-52.5%), MG (-44.9%) and Honda (-35%).

Model-wise, the Ford Ranger (-24.5%) hold onto the top spot by a fair margin over the Toyota RAV4 (+45.1%) in excellent shape. The Mitsubishi Triton (+124%) makes up for a paltry year-ago score to climb to third place overall, dislodging the Toyota Hilux (-26.7%) down to #4. The Kia Stonic (+55.7%) surges to 5th place overall (31% rentals) ahead of the Kia Seltos (+78.6%) and Mitsubishi Outlander (+89.2%) at 47% rentals. The Mitsubishi ASX shoots up from outside the March 2023 Top 20 directly into 8th place for the month.

Previous month: New Zealand February 2024: Nissan, GWM shine in market up 1.5%

One year ago: New Zealand March 2023: Suzuki, Kia, Hyundai defy market down -24%

Full March 2024 Top 72 All brands and Top 20 models below.