New Zealand Auto Market is on a negative trend in 2024. YTD figures in November totaled 116,010 registrations, down 14.6% compared to the prior year. Monthly sales, at 11,858 were down 16.3%. While MG grew 3 spots into 4th, Tesla dropped 5 positions into 10th.
Market Trend and Outlook
In 2024, economic conditions in New Zealand are expected to remain subdued as the economy continues to rebalance from a period of strong demand, tight supply and historically high inflation.
Coupled with weaker year to date tax outturns, this translates to soft growth in tax revenue in the near term, while growth in core Crown expenses remain high. The combination of these factors sees OBEGAL deficits remain elevated and net core Crown debt continuing to rise in the near term.
The economy is expected to gradually strengthen from the second half of 2024, with private sector incomes supported by the Budget 2024 tax package, a continuing recovery in tourism earnings and an easing inflation outlook enabling a gradual reduction in interest rates. Overall, New Zealand’s GDP growth is projected to be 0.8% in 2024, picking up to 1.9% in 2025 as inflation eases, restoring modest real household income and consumption growth.
In accordance with the stagnant economic conditions, New Zealand’s auto market contracted in November 2024. YTD figures at 116,010 were down 14.6% compared to the prior year. Monthly sales totaled 11,858, down 16.3%.
Looking at cumulative data up to November 2024 brand-wise, Toyota reported 27,277 sales (-6.8%), Ford -up 1 spot- in 2nd with 17,038 registrations (+16.1%), followed by Mitsubishi –down 1 spot- with 13,658 units sold (-13.7%) and Kia with 9,447 total sales (-18.5%).
MG -up 3 spots- ranked into 5th place with 7,201 sales (+32.1%), followed by Hyundai -down 1 spot- at 5,272 (-45%), Nissan -up 2 spots- with 5,112 (+29.2%), and Honda -up 2 spots- with 5,043 sales (-37.7%).
Suzuki dropped 2 spots ranking in 9th position with 4,614 sales (+36.6%), while Tesla -down 4 spots- closed the top 10 with 2,872 car registrations (-63.7%).
Looking at specific models, reported in the dedicated article, the Ford Ranger was still the best seller (+5.9%), followed by the Toyota RAV4 which gained 14.7%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
New Zealand’s car passenger sales in the past decade have shown signs of a healthy market, growing for 9 consecutive years. From 2010 to 2019 the market doubled, moving from 80,453 in 2010 to 160,878 sales by the end of 2019.
The arrival of the pandemic slowed down car passenger sales in New Zealand, falling 25.7% to 119,579 new registrations.
The pandemic wasn’t enough to stop the uptrend accumulated in the past decade, in fact, 2021 reported a 31.6% growth in new car registrations with 2022 continuing the uptrend and reaching 116,451 cumulative sales (+3.8%). Although the market grew in 2022, it did so at a slower pace. A combination of factors are behind the current industry struggle: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and the Governments push towards Evs.
New Zealand’s Auto Market in 2023, although showing some traits of recovery, reached 111.903 registration (-4.0%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands and top 10 Manufacturers Group.
