August 2020 New Vehicles Sales slowed by Level 3 Auckland Lockdown

Motor Industry Association Chief Executive David Crawford says that August 2020 registrations of new vehicles were adversely affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, especially the Alert Level 3 in Auckland. August registrations came in at 15.8% below August 2019 with 10,610 vehicles registered, down 1,997 units on the same month last year.

“Year to date the market is down 23.6% in a year that remains heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Key points

• Overall August 2020 registrations of 10,610 vehicles were down 15.8% (1,997 units) on the same month in 2019.

• There were 129 pure electric vehicles, 60 PHEV’s and 1,013 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.

• The market overall to the end of August is down 23.6% (23,691 units) on the first eight months of 2019.

• Registration of 7,076 passenger and SUVs for August 2020 were down 16.8% (1,430 units) on 2019 volumes, while commercial vehicle registrations of 3,534 were down 13.8% (567 units) compared to August 2019.

• The top three models for the month of August were the Ford Ranger (964 units), followed by the Toyota RAV4 (638 units) with the Toyota Hilux in third place (524 units).

Market leaders in August

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 19% market share (2,048 units), followed by Ford with 13% (1,349 units) and Mitsubishi in third spot with 8% market share (811 units).

SUV and passenger vehicle sales

Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 19% market share (1,363 units) followed by Kia with 10% (735 units) and then Suzuki with 8% market share (558 units).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (638 units) followed by the Kia Sportage (313 units) and the Kia Seltos (243 units).

Commercial vehicle sales

Ford retained the market lead with 30% market share (1,061 units) followed by Toyota with 19% (685 units) and Mitsubishi third with 11% market share (376 units).

The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 27% share (964 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 15% share (524 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton in third place with 11% market share (376 units).

Smaller vehicles dominated the market in August

Overall the top segments for the month of August were dominated by SUV’s. The top spot went to the SUV medium vehicles with 22% share followed by the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 18% and then SUV Compact with 19% market share.