Corolla Cross tops September as Model Y leads private buyers
Words: Richard Edwards
The Toyota Corolla Cross was New Zealand’s best-selling new passenger vehicle in September, with 1053 registrations, as rental companies built up their fleets ahead of summer.
Rental operators registered 4736 new cars in the month, 35.8% of all new passenger registrations. Among private and business buyers, the Tesla Model Y was the most popular choice.
Overall, 17,055 new vehicles were registered in September, up 21.8% on the 13,999 recorded in the same month last year.
Top selling passenger vehicles
- Toyota Corolla Cross
- Mitsubishi Outlander
- Toyota RAV4
- Mitsubishi ASX
- Tesla Model Y
- Toyota Corolla
- Kia Sportage
- Kia Stonic
- Ford Everest
- Toyota Highlander
The Corolla Cross (1053) led the Mitsubishi Outlander on 964, up 19% on last September.
The Toyota RAV4, last September’s top seller, was third on 803, ahead of the Mitsubishi ASX on 680.
The Tesla Model Y was fifth on 588, up from 190. Tesla typically delivers most of its cars in the last month of each quarter.
The Toyota Corolla (450), Kia Sportage (317), Kia Stonic (273), Ford Everest (259) and Toyota Highlander (251) completed the top 10. The Sportage and Stonic were both up by more than 75%.
Just outside the top 10 were the BYD Atto 2 (240), MG ZS (233), GWM Haval H6 (224) and Kia Carnival (211).
What private and business buyers chose
Rental registrations give a fleet view of the market. Looking at the rest shows what Kiwis are buying for themselves.
On that measure the Model Y leads with 580, as almost all of its registrations went to private and business buyers. The RAV4 is second on 401 and the Corolla Cross third on 344, followed by the Outlander on 310.
The BYD Atto 2 is fifth on 240, all of them to private and business buyers. The Ford Everest (235), Kia Sportage (209) and GWM Haval H6 (188) are next.
Rental companies were also big buyers of the Toyota Corolla (361), Toyota Highlander (210) and Kia Carnival (185).
Top brands (passenger)
- Toyota
- Mitsubishi
- Kia
- BYD
- Tesla
Toyota led the passenger market with 3003 registrations, up 17.1% and a 22.7% share. Mitsubishi was second on 1758, level with last year, ahead of Kia on 1386, up 46.7%.
BYD was fourth on 871, up from 107, and Tesla fifth on 650, up from 228. MG (612), GWM (508), Mazda (426), Suzuki (377) and Ford (333) made up the rest of the top 10.
Adding its Shark 6 utes, BYD registered 1090 vehicles in the month, the first time a Chinese brand has passed 1000 registrations in a month in New Zealand.
Chinese brands together took 20.3% of the passenger market, up from 10.6% a year earlier.
Top selling commercial vehicles
- Ford Ranger
- Toyota Hilux
- Mitsubishi Triton
- BYD Shark 6
- Toyota Hiace
The Ford Ranger was the best-selling ute with 843 registrations, up 1.9%, just ahead of the Toyota Hilux on 823, up 7%.
The Mitsubishi Triton was third on 392 and the BYD Shark 6 fourth on 219, up from 81. The Toyota Hiace was the top van on 177.
Commercial registrations rose 4.8% to 3811, the first year-on-year rise since April.
The wider market
Passenger registrations rose 27.8% to 13,244, the best September result since at least 2019 and the biggest month for passenger vehicles since June 2023.
Year to date, 112,410 new vehicles have been registered, up 11.4%. Passenger registrations are up 16.8% at 82,574, while commercial registrations are down 1.2% at 29,836.
Used imports rose 13.6% to 8468. The Toyota Aqua (915) and Prius (502) again led the used passenger market, ahead of the Nissan Note (446) and Toyota Corolla (421).
Registration data: Waka Kotahi NZTA.
