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Holden takes massive sales hit

New-vehicle registration figures show how the lion marque is fast going from being among the market leaders to an also-ran.
Posted on 05 March, 2020
Holden takes massive sales hit

Holden’s place among car buyers is in rapid decline as the marque prepares to disappear from the market.

Latest registration figures for New Zealand’s new-vehicle fleet show how quickly the brand has fallen out of favour with buyers and how it’s being overtaken on the sales front by rival marques.

Holden finished last year as the fourth most popular marque in this country, but Motor Industry Association (MIA) statistics for February show it dropped to ninth place overall last month.

The fall from grace comes on the back of February 17’s announcement by General Motors that it will be withdrawing the brand from the Australasian market this year.

Holden accounted for an eight per cent chunk of New Zealand new-vehicle sales in 2019 when it achieved 12,026 registrations. In February, it accounted for only four per cent of trade – or 457 units.

In the new car and SUV standings, the marque charted fifth overall in 2019, with 7,206 units giving it a seven per cent market share. Last month, however, it tumbled to number 12 on the list, nabbing only three per cent of the market – the equivalent of 276 units.

The numbers from MIA also reveal Holden’s slice of the action halved in the commercial sector, tumbling from a 10 per cent market share for all of 2019 to just five per cent in February 2020. 

During 2019, it had 4,820 new commercial-vehicle registrations and last month it tallied just 181. This mean it dropped from fourth to sixth among on the ladder for marques in this sector of the industry.