Monster month for Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Outlander took out a 13.3 per cent share of all new passenger vehicles sold in January*.

The medium-sized SUV, pictured, which comes with a plug-in hybrid variant, sold 1,185 units last month. That total was up from 389 sales and by 204.6 per cent when compared to January 2021.

Mitsubishi was also the top-selling marque for new cars and commercials overall, while its Triton was the country’s best-selling commercial model.

Overall, there were 8,883 new passenger vehicles registered in New Zealand during January, which was down by 8.4 per cent from 9,702 in the same month of last year.

January’s second most-popular model was the MG ZS on 301 units for a market share of 3.4 per cent. That was a 323.9 per cent jump from 71 last year.

Third sport went to Mitsubishi’s ASX on 298 – a 20.5 per cent drop from 375 for a 3.4 per cent share. Kia’s Sportage was fourth even though sales dropped by 23 per cent from 374 to 288 for 3.2 per cent of last month’s market.

Hyundai’s Kona completed the top five on 269 sales – up 83 per cent from 147 for three per cent overall, and one unit ahead of the Kia Seltos in sixth.

Last month’s top Toyota was the RAV4 – way down the pecking order in 22nd spot with 94 sales. That was down by 80 per cent compared to 471 in January 2021 for a market share of just 1.1 per cent.

As for marques, Mitsubishi topped the table for cars thanks to 1,674 units for an increase of 67.1 per cent from 1,002 in January last year. Its share of last month’s new passenger-vehicle market came in at 18.8 per cent.

Kia was second on 1,085 – down from 1,347 and by 19.5 per cent year on year to claim 12.2 per cent of last month’s market.

Hyundai came third with an 18.3 per cent jump from 586 in January 2021 to 693 last month. Its monthly share was 7.8 per cent.

Suzuki was fourth with 646 registrations for a market share of 7.3 per cent. Its total was down by 10.2 per cent from 719 units in the same month of last year.

Fifth place went to Toyota with a market share of 5.6 per cent. It recorded a year-on-year drop of 65 per cent – from 1,420 in January 2021 to 497 last month.

Other interesting results included Cupra with 37 registrations and new market entrant Polestar with 18.

*Waka Kotahi dataset incomplete, 2022 statistics are for January 1-28 only