With the Labour government’s Clean Car Scheme and the proposed feebate plan which comes into play next year and affects light commercial vehicles, sales of utes and vans are on a superhighway.
Figures released by the Motor Industry Association for the month of September, show the Pick Up/Chassis 4x4 segment with 14 percent market share of 16,518 new vehicles sold.
As far as the commercial market is concerned, Ford retained the market lead with 32 percent market share (1,503 units) followed by Toyota with 20 percent (941 units) and Mitsubishi third with six percent market share (256 units).
And breaking it down even further, the Ford Ranger retained the top spot for the month of September as the bestselling commercial model with 30 percent share (1,408 units).
Toyota’s Hilux followed with 14 percent share (648 units) and the Toyota Hiace took third place with five percent market share (232 units).
The utility vehicles are still the most popular-selling commercial vehicles, but this is slightly skewed data since some of those utes are being purchased as personal vehicles.
However, the numbers cannot be disputed; New Zealanders love their utes, which is not only reflected in the numbers, but in the introduction of new models and the ongoing development from long serving automakers to build on what has gone before.
Indeed, the most sweeping changes seen in the auto industry this year – outside of the development of EVs – have manifested themselves in the utility vehicle segment.
We have seen radical and dramatic changes from the likes of Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Isuzu while brands like GMSV, Great Wall and LDV have cemented their products in place.
Meantime, those brands whose products are nearing the end of their life cycle, the Ford Ranger and the Volkswagen Amarok – their replacements are eagerly awaited.
What is also eagerly anticipated and somewhat slow to materialise if truth be told, is the electric ute.
American ute builder Rivian is already in the Antipodes with its electric ute and the SUV spawned from the same chassis, but it is focusing its attention on Australia, rather than New Zealand.
Great Wall was supposed to have had an electric ute here by now, but apparently the Chinese manufacturer – or rather, the man at the top – seems to have shifted the company focus onto the more profitable SUV market.
The company which does launch the electric ute in this company is going to find a lot of love from the market here as ironically, it will be possible to buy a ute and claim a rebate which is funded by the tax paid by regular ICE utes!
However, this is something of a pipe dream for the moment as there are no battery powered utes available to buy and nor are there likely to be before the proposed ute tax comes into force.
Best bet for now then? Buy your ute this side of Christmas and to help you along with that, on the next few pages, you’ll find every ute you can buy, plus it’s vital statistics to help you make an informed buying decision.
