New Zealand August 2024: Volkswagen (+42.9%), Mitsubishi (+24.6%) highlight stable market

VW Amarok

The New Zealand new vehicle market edges up 2.1% year-on-year in August to 9,990 sales. This is to be compared with 14,662 in August 2022. The year-to-date tally is off a daunting -18.7% to 82,067. In August, Passenger Cars are up 6.6% to 1,412, SUVs down -5.4% to 5,327 and Light Commercials up 24.7% to 2,586. Year-to-date, Passenger Cars sink -33.5% to 10,183, SUVs fall -24.5% to 42,887 and Light Commercials gain 0.5% to 23,695.

In the brands charts, the Top 2 best-seller frankly underperform: Toyota is down -14.8% to 20.8% share vs. 21.4% so far this year and Ford drops -17.7% to 11.9% share vs. 13.7% YTD. In contrast Mitsubishi surges 24.6% but its market share remains well below its YTD level at 9.9% vs .11.2%. Volkswagen (+42.9%), Hyundai (+19.3%) and Suzuki (+17.1%) shine further down.

Model-wise, the Ford Ranger (-1.9%) easily keeps the lead of the charts with 8.3% share, distancing the Toyota Hilux (+47.7%) rallying back up to 6.9% share vs. 6.1% year-to-date. Unlike in neighbouring Australia, the Toyota RAV4 (-30%) is in great difficulty this month. The Kia Seltos (+43.9%) repeats at #4 ahead of the Mitsubishi ASX and Triton (+82.4%). The Suzuki Swift (+20.1%) and Toyota Yaris Cross (+18%) also impress in the remainder of the Top 10.

Previous month: New Zealand July 2024: Market rallies back up 52.6%

One year ago: New Zealand August 2023: Ford, Nissan again defy freefalling market (-33.1%)

Full August 2024 Top 71 All brands and Top 20 models below.