The comeback continues: the best February ever for new vehicle registrations

Wednesday, 3 March 2021

These are the ten best-selling new vehicles in New Zealand as of the end of February 2021.

New car sales continue their strong start to 2021 with February registrations setting a new record as stock continues to flow into the country.

While January’s new car registrations were up 6.2 per cent on last year, making it the third best January on record, February surpassed that by being up 9.2 per cent, making it the biggest February on record for new car registrations.

With 12,488 new vehicles registered last month with the overall market up 7.6 per cent (1,865 units) compared to the first two months of 2020.

The Toyota Hilux has regained its top spot as both New Zealand’s top-selling ute and its top-selling vehicle overall.

“The February market has benefited from recent stock arrivals and a resilient local economy where New Zealanders continue to spend what might otherwise be spent on international travel on new vehicles,” said Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford.

**READ MORE:

Despite the fact a new one isn’t far away, Mitsubishi's Outlander just keeps selling.

* New vehicle sales bounce back strongly

* Road test review: Toyota Hilux SR cab chassis

The Suzuki Swift has muscled its way back into the top ten for the year, elbowing the Nissan Navara out of the way.

* 'Better than anticipated' - new vehicle market drops 23 per cent in 2020

* MG gets even more plugged in

The Tesla Model 3 was the best-selling EV in February with 86 registrations for the month.

Registration of 8,712 passenger cars and SUVs for February 2021 was up 10.1 per cent (801units) on February 2020, while commercial vehicle registrations of 3,776 were up 7.1 per cent (249 units).

The Toyota Hilux was the best-selling single model in February, with 804 units registered, followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (595 units) with the Ford Ranger slipping down to third place (549 units).

Toyota remains the overall market leader with a 16 per cent market share (2,050 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 13 per cent (1,620 units) and Kia in third spot with 8 per cent of the market (1,059 units).

Mitsubishi continues its strong showing in the sales recently by being the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with a 13 per cent market share (1,105 units) followed by Toyota with 1,058 units and then Kia with 1,056 units.

The best-selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Mitsubishi Outlander (595 units), Kia Sportage (370 units) and the Kia Seltos (364 units).

The refreshed Toyota Hilux gained momentum on its nemesis, the Ford Ranger, now that stock rolling in and forward orders being fulfilled, regaining the top commercial vehicle spot for the month with a 21 per cent share (804 units) followed by the Ford Ranger (549 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton (474 units).

Smaller SUVs continue to dominate the passenger sales, with the top spot for February 2021 going to the Compact SUV segment with a 22 per cent market share followed closely by the Medium SUV segment with 21 per cent of the market, followed by the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with a 14 per cent share.

There were 191 pure electric vehicles, 81 PHEV’s and 757 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.

The Tesla Model 3 was the big-seller in the EV segment, with 86 registrations for February and a 45 per cent market share, while the MG ZS EV came in second with 34 sales, followed by the Porsche Taycan with 19 sales.

The sales of pure electric cars are up compared to this time last year, with 435 sales year to date compared to just 263 this time last year.

Plug-in hybrid sales slumped in comparison to February last year, with the Mitsubishi Outlander dominating February sales with a modest 38 registrations, compared to the Mini Countryman with just 10 and the BMW X3 dropping third place into the single digit territory with 7 registrations.

In terms of hybrids, it was Toyota all the way, with the company accounting for a massive 86 per cent (651 units) of the 757 hybrid registrations for February between the Toyota and Lexus brands.

The RAV4 (184 units), Corolla (134) and C-HR (100) hybrids made up the top three, followed by the Yaris (74) before the Suzuki Swift (60) interrupted the run of Toyotas. The Swift also moved its way back up into the top ten sellers overall this month.