New Zealand January 2025: BYD Shark 6 lands directly inside Top 10

For its first appearance in the New Zealand charts, the BYD Shark 6 ranks #10.

It’s a disappointing start of the year for New Zealand with just 10,863 new vehicles finding a new home in January, off -14.1% on last year. Toyota (-5%) resists better than the market, resulting in an improved 22.6% share. Ford (-50.3%) dramatically halves its year-ago volume as it held a very high 16.5% share in January 2024. Mitsubishi (-37.6%) is also in rut but still manages to stay in third place. Kia (+3.9%) repeats at #4 ahead of Suzuki (-5.8%) and Nissan (-25.5%). The event of the month is BYD (+812.5%) storming into the Top 10 its highest since hitting a record #5 in December 2023. MG (+63.8%) is also in great shape at #10.

Over in the models charts, similarly to neighbour Australia, the Toyota RAV4 (+65.3%) is well above the competition and signs a 4th win in the past 5 months. If maintained until the end of the year, the RAV4 could end 10 straight years at #1 by the Ford Ranger. The Ranger, which is obliterated this month at -62.4% to just 5.1% share in third place, with 22% being rentals. Meanwhile the Toyota Hilux (-6.7%) is up two spots on December to #2. Excellent showing by the Kia Seltos (+16.8%) up to #4 overall with 28% being rentals. The next five models all fall by the double digits, with only the Suzuki Swift (-12.3%) managing a share improvement. Finally, we have a thunderbolt inside the Top 10: just launched, the BYD Shark 6 PHEV pickup truck lands directly at an outstanding 10th place. BYD hasn’t yet reported sales of the Shark 6 in Australia so this is the first time the model appears in any of our rankings over the world.

Previous post: New Zealand Full Year 2024: Ford Ranger celebrates 10 straight years at #1

One year ago: New Zealand January 2024: Ford at highest in over a decade, Range up to record share

Full January 2025 Top 71 All brands and Top 20 models below.