Kia knocks Toyota off in October vehicle sales

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Kia has revealed its new-look for the Sorento SUV, inspired by the small Seltos that has just arrived in New Zealand.

The October numbers are in and while they have dropped compared to 2019, Kia has done something remarkable - beaten Toyota.

Figures for the month continue the downward trend of 2020 as a whole, with October registrations coming in at just over 20 per cent below the same month last year, with 11,876 new sales (a drop of 3089 units).

Motor Industry Association chief executive, David Crawford, said: “Year to date the market is down 23.5 per cent, which is consistent with recent months data confirming our expectations that 2020 will finish about 25 per cent down on 2019 volumes.”

Kia has pipped Toyota to the top spot in passenger and SUV registrations, which is no small feat.

Registrations for passenger vehicles and SUVs for the month dropped 22 per cent (2336 units) on October 2019, while commercial registrations were down 17.4 per cent (753 units).

**READ MORE:

Toyota’s updated Hilux ute has knocked the Ranger off its post though. Will it retain momentum into November?

* September new vehicle registrations good for Tesla

* August registrations down thanks to second lockdown

* Are we over utes? (Spoiler: no we're not)

The top models for the month were the new model Toyota Hilux (731 units), followed by the Ford Ranger (686 units) with the Kia Sportage in third place (488 units).

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 17 per cent market share (2070 units), followed by Ford with 11 per cent (1288 units) and Kia closely behind in third spot with nine per cent market share (1276 units).

While Kia is still trailing Toyota by a fair margin in overall numbers, it managed to beat the Japanese giant in SUV and passenger sales, taking 15 per cent of the market against Toyota’s 13 per cent (1276 units vs 1117). Mazda took third with 8 per cent market share (677 units).

The new Hilux is doing work for Toyota in the commercial sector, helping it top Ford with 27 per cent market share (953 units) against the Blue Oval’s 24 per cent (868 units). Mitsubishi was third with 10 per cent (354 units).

Toyota’s new ute regained the top spot for the month of October as the bestselling commercial model with 20 per cent share (731 units) followed by the Ford Ranger with 19 per cent share (686 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with eight per cent market share (282 units).

Meanwhile, there were 107 pure electric vehicles, 60 PHEV’s and 787 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.