Registrations for new commercial vehicles in January 2019 fell by one percent (48 units) year on year, but the biggest surprise was the Mitsubishi Triton overtaking the Toyota Hilux to sit in second place behind the perennially market-leading Ford Ranger.
The Ranger achieved a 21% share (837 units) followed by the Triton with 11% share (445 units) with the Hilux in third also with 11% market share (434 units).
Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand chief operating officer Daniel Cook says the response to the launch of the new Triton has been the most phenomenal one yet, that he has seen in the 16 years in which he has worked with the company.
“To pip out Hilux for second place in our first month of sales is a very good sign, we were very pleased with the result, especially for January which is not normally a strong month for new ute sales,” he says.
Cook also says that new registrations were a 50:50 sales split between the run-out model and the all-new Tritons which arrived in dealer yards between January 10 and 15. He says sales of the new Triton Ute have been skewed to the top spec VRX model priced at $49,990.
“We underestimated the amount of interest in the top-spec VRX models but there are more boatloads of these coming, it’s a shift for us into the higher end of the market where we expect volume to grow,” says Cook.
“We will hold our introductory pricing for the new Triton model range until the end of the Fieldays season in June,” he says.
In the commercial sector, Ford regained the market lead with 22% (888 units) followed by Toyota with 15% (594 units) and Mitsubishi third with 11% market share (445 units).
Vehicle segmentation for January 2019 continued recent trends with SUV’s and light commercials dominating the market. The top two segments for the month were SUV medium vehicles with 16% share followed by SUV Compact with 15% market share and then the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4×4 segment with 14% market share.
New vehicle registrations in January 2019 have fallen by 6% (896 units) year on year to 13,938 units but not withstanding the lower result, it was still the second strongest January on record according to industry body, the Motor Vehicle Industry Association of New Zealand (MIA).
“As 2019 gets underway, the economic environment that existed this time last year and before that has begun to fundamentally change, albeit slowly. However, levels of new vehicle sales while softer than this time last year, remain at historically high levels ” says MIA chief executive officer David Crawford.
