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Immigration, tourism driving boom in new car sales in New Zealand

Xinhua, August 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Strong levels of immigration and a booming tourism sector drove record sales of new cars in New Zealand last month, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) said Wednesday.

New vehicle sales hit a July record of 11,570, up 11.6 percent from July last year, MIA chief executive officer David Crawford said in a statement.

"The strongest net immigration on record, healthy tourism sector and a generally robust economy continues to drive sales of new vehicles beyond that expected," said Crawford.

"For the month of July there were 7,702 passenger and SUV (sports utility vehicle) vehicle registrations and 3,868 commercial vehicle registrations, which were once again the highest month of July on record for commercial vehicle registrations."

Toyota was the overall market leader in July with 17 percent market share, with Ford second on 13 percent and Holden third with 8 percent.

SUVs accounted for an unprecedented 34 percent of vehicle registrations in July followed by passenger vehicles at 32 and the light commercial vehicles at 28 percent.

SUVs accounted for only 12 percent of the market in 2002 and 18 percent during the Global Financial Crisis, but by the end of 2016 were likely to be 37 percent of the market.

"In which case, 2016 will for the first time see the SUV segment outselling the passenger segment over a 12-month period," said Crawford. Endit