Tesla tops monthly sales for September

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A large shipment of Model Ys landing in New Zealand in September has seen Tesla take a convincing top spot in the month’s new vehicle registration numbers, outselling even the normally dominant Ford Ranger.

Tesla registered 1502 Model Y SUVs in September, handily topping the Ranger (1043 units) and Toyota Hilux (989 units) in overall sales, while also taking the top slot in EV registrations (followed by the BYD Atto 3 on 221 units and the MG ZS EV with 178 units), as well as leading the passenger and SUV segment ahead of the Mitsubishi Outlander (867 units) and Mitsubishi ASX (410 units).

Overall 14,879 new vehicles were registered last month, making it the second-strongest September on record, although it is still down 9.9 percent on September last year. Overall, the market year to date is 0.2 percent down on the first nine months of 2021.

A big shipment of Model Ys arriving has seen Tesla take the sales lead for September.

Nile Bijoux/Stuff

A big shipment of Model Ys arriving has seen Tesla take the sales lead for September.

Registrations of 10,601 passenger cars and SUV’s were down 10.7% (1,273 units) on the same month last year but is still ahead of 2021 year to date by 2.2% (up 1,872 units), while registrations of 4,278 new commercial vehicles were down 7.9% (366 units). Year to date sales of commercial vehicles is down 5.4% (2,114 units) on the first nine months of 2021.

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Like August, September registrations benefited from strong deliveries of back orders for electric vehicles, with 2,418 going to new owners, 18 of which were heavy vehicles (trucks), while hybrids also remained strong with 1,674 registered.

The new Ford Ranger led the LCV segment, but Toyota still holds an overall market lead.

Richard Bosselman/Stuff

The new Ford Ranger led the LCV segment, but Toyota still holds an overall market lead.

The top-selling hybrids were the Toyota RAV4 (246 units) followed by the Toyota Yaris Cross (184 units) and the Hyundai Ioniq (150 units), while the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross led plug-in hybrid sales with 167 units followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (138 units) and the Hyundai Ioniq (41 units). Oversall, 491 PHEVs were registered in September.

The new Ford Ranger once again led the sales in the light commercial segment, followed by the Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi Triton (379 units), but Toyota took the segment lead with a 27% market share (1159 units) overall, compared to Ford on 25% (1063 units) and Mitsubishi with 10% (445 units).

Toyota also remains the overall sales leader both in September and year-to-date with an 18% market share (2,668 units) for the month, followed by Mitsubishi with 14% (2,094 units) and Tesla in third spot with 10% of the market (1,554 units). Year to date, Toyota has 17% of the market (21,131 units), followed by Mitsubishi with a 15% share (18,964 units) and then Ford with 8% (9,679 units).

In terms of the most popular type of vehicle, the medium SUV still reigns supreme with the segment accounting for 29% of September registrations, followed by the compact SUV segment on 21% and the Pick Up/Chassis 4×4 segment with 14% market share.

Year to date small to medium SUVs account for 59% of the total market.