Words: Kyle Cassidy
Published 3 March 2026
The latest registration data for the new car market in New Zealand shows that sales are up year-to-date and for the month of February.
Registrations totalled 10,193 units for February 2026, up four per cent on last year’s monthly total while year-to-date registrations are ahead 6.5 per cent, with 21,970 units registered.
The Motor Industry Association says that overall, the market has commenced 2026 on a firmer footing relative to last year as both light passenger and light commercial vehicle segments are growing.
It says the February lift is encouraging and that the industry continues to respond to stable but competitive trading conditions.
There were 7138 light passenger vehicles sold for 70 per cent of the market, light commercials totalled 2612 for 25 per cent market share, while the rest were heavy commercial. The business buyer accounted for 55 per cent of the sales, private buyers represented 36 per cent of the total, while government and rental fleets took up the rest.
In terms of motive power for the total market in February, 6.6 per cent of those registered were fully electric, 6.9 per cent were plug-in hybrids, 23.6 per cent were hybrids while pure ICEs accounted for 63 per cent of sales.
When talking light passenger vehicles however, battery electrics made up nine per cent, plug-ins eight per cent, hybrids 31 per cent and ICE 52 per cent.
As to the top seller of the month, that was the Ford Ranger with 761, then the Hyundai Tucson (418), Nissan Navara (411), Toyota RAV4 (369) and Mitsubishi ASX (308).
The best selling electric car was the Zeekr 7x with 71 sold followed by the MG ZS (51) and the new Atto 1 with 38 sold.
As usual Toyota dominated sales in February accounting for 15 per cent of all registrations with 1515 sold, followed by Ford on 1288 and Mitsubishi on 905.
