Buoyed by a windfall 5,000 vehicle Triton shipment in the final quarter of 2021, Mitsubishi has surged forward in the New Zealand sales stakes.
The company sold a total of 1,185 units in January, leaping up from 389 sales for the same period in 2021.
Mitsubishi overturned recent sales performances by its rivals, becoming the top-selling marque for new cars and commercials overall.
The Triton flooded into New Zealand in late 2021, with an unexpected 5,000 – unit shipment just as the market spiked into full-on FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) mode.
Perhaps surprisingly, Mitsubishi’s best seller in January was not the Triton. It was the brand’s medium SUV, the Outlander, that took a 13.3 per cent share of all new passenger vehicles sold in January. The Outlander is available in a wide range of variants including a plug-in hybrid variant.
The top five spots were all filled by SUV-style vehicles. The second most popular model – selling 301 units – was the MG ZS. Mitsubishi also filled third spot in January with the ASX crossover ‘soft’ SUV. Kia’s Sportage was fourth though sales dropped from 374 in January 2021 to 288 this year. Hyundai’s Kona completed the top five on 269 sales – up 83 per cent from 147 the previous year.
Part of Mitsubishi’s dream run may have been due to the shortages brought about by the near collapse of the global supply chain and the inability of other major brands to lay hands on stock to fill their yards. Mitsubishi seems to have managed to navigate its way around these nightmare issues.
The Triton was the country’s best-selling commercial model; with those 5,000 extra units quickly swallowed up by buyers, many of them keen to avoid the coming ‘ute tax’.
January is traditionally a very quiet sales month where some brands encourage dealers to pre-register vehicles to keep sales numbers looking healthy.
Without stock to register or sell, that was not possible this year. There were 8,883 new passenger vehicles registered in New Zealand during January, down by more than eight per cent over January 2021.
Availability of stock is an ongoing issue across the car industry. Covid, supply chain breakdowns, shortage of raw materials – these factors and more have come together in a ‘perfect storm’ that frustrates the auto brands and buyers alike.
Factor in the Government’s support for electric vehicles through a tax on high-carbon cars utes and trucks and the situation becomes intense.
Toyota appears to have been hard-hit by supply issues. Its best seller in January was the RAV 4, but that popular smaller SUV fell to 22nd overall. The marque’s tough 70 Series Land Cruiser is currently not available at any of its dealers, and the wait list for the new Land Cruiser LC300 (reviewed in this issue of NZ4WD) is stretching out to 14 months or more. In fact, Covid-19’s impact on Toyota’s Land Cruiser production operation is so big, that the brand is foreshadowing a four-year delivery time for units in its home market.
Toyota NZ’s overall year-on-year figure went from 1,420 in January 2021 to 497 this year, a drop of 65 per cent.
LDV told us when the T60 bi-turbo was ‘soft-launched’ they had already sold their stock allocation for the year.
Suzuki has been grappling with massive demand for its cult favourite the Jimny Safari, with delivery times stretching out to four months or more between last October and this month.
Nissan appears to be in a similar situation, while Ford is looking to eke out current model Ranger stock until July when it will launch the new model.