Car sales drop as living costs, fuel prices rise

AUCKLAND: The car industry is blaming high living costs, fuel prices, supply choke points and a weakening economy for dismal July sales figures.

The Motor Industry Association (MIA) said new passenger car and SUV registrations were down 19.4% on the same month last year.

It was even more dire for new commercial vehicles, with registrations down 39.8% on July last year.

Overall, registrations of new vehicles were down 26.3% on July last year.

The MIA said numbers were likely to stay subdued in coming months because of clean car taxes.

Despite their unpopularity with some climate activists, SUVs made up the majority of all vehicles sold in July.

Mediumsized SUVs were the topselling vehicle segment, taking 23% of the market, compact SUVs had 21% last month and large SUVs had 9%.

In the year to date, the whole market was down 6.6% compared to the first seven months of 2021.

The bestselling models in July were the Toyota Hilux (957 units), the Toyota RAV4 (690) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (685).

The association said the Hilux was the bestselling model so far this year, with 5739 units sold.

The Outlander was in second place overall and the Ford Ranger third in this year to date.

Of all carmakers this year, Toyota was leading with 17% of the market, Mitsubishi was second with 16% and Ford was third with 8%.

The MIA said plugin hybrid registrations in July were steady with 635 units registered last month, another 550 new pure electric vehicles were registered and 1773 petrol hybrids were sold. —