Toyota New Zealand general sales manager Steve Pragnell says he expects the Japanese brand to hold its light commercial vehicle market share in 2016, despite a softening market.
Prangnell spoke to DIESELtalk at a Lexus function in early December before the monthly statistics were released, but his prediction for 2016 was that Toyota will hold it’s share of the light commercial market, even though he expects a decline between 5 to 7%.
“We think the market has peaked in 2015 and will come back to a more sustainable rate in 2016, we believe combined sales of 125,000 represents a strong market,” he says.
“We expect to sell 5400 Hilux models in 2016, we sold 530 new generation Hilux units in November 2015, and that was a very healthy start for the new model,” says Prangnell.
December 2015 saw the all-new Hilux take 419 registrations for 13% of the market.
Pragnell says the addition of the 4X2 Pre Runner and the 4×2 automatic Hilux variants cover the gaps in the market which were previously dominated by the Ranger.
He also commented that in the last five years the market for light commercial vehicles such as Hilux has grown by 50% taking share from sedans and hatches, as buyers move into pickups as they have become more car-like to drive and offer better specification and safety features.
“I think we will hold our share of the light commercial market, it may increase with Hilux, but our HiAce Van has a 39% share of the segment in a market which has declined 8%, but that is still a serious number,” says Prangnell.
“We expanded the van range with 1/2 panel and full panel variants, and there is currently a 90 lead time on ZX minibus ex-factory,” says Prangnell.
The Land Cruiser 70 series also continues to sell in good numbers as it has this segment of the market virtually to itself.
Prangnell says that Toyota ordered 250 units to tide it over until the new five-star safety rated model arrives in the third quarter, but 160 have already sold leaving 90 units to cover the gap for the next six months.
