The big noise in ute-dom, Ford’s Ranger, had a really great July.

THE war against utilities is going badly – for the protagonists: July, the first full month of sales since Government cited one-tonners as environmental threats, delivered a record registrations count for the country’s favourite.

Ford has confirmed 1418 Ranger sales was the model type’s best month ever, easily trouncing the previous high of 1170 units achieved in June, 2017, a time when the mid-year national field days triggered extra-high buy-in.

Last month’s total not only gave the Blue Oval rig clear supremacy in the commercial sector but also made it the month’s top-selling new vehicle overall, with a count almost double that for the most popular passenger car, Mitsubishi’s elderly ASX.

Two other utes also figured, though not as spectacularly. The Toyota Hilux was at No.2 in the traydeck category with 809 registrations while the Mitsubishi Triton was third, with 489.

Cumulatively, those three models accounted for 54 percent of commercial vehicle sales for the month – Ranger alone achieving a 28 percent slice in what is considered an unprecedented month for tradie vehicles.

Ford New Zealand communications manager Tom Clancy says Ranger was already heading for a big year even before Government, in statements surrounding the electric vehicle feebates strategy enacted on June 1, cited utes as particular blackhearts.

However, he doesn’t discount that the anti-ute sentiment, and confirmation that vehicles which express more than 192 grams of CO2 per kilometre – and that’s every current popular model in that class – will be penalised from the start of 2022 probably also influenced.

“Demand was already off the charts before the feebate … but maybe some people decided to move a little earlier (on buying) than they might have originally planned.”

Potentially the big run for Ranger might continue and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility it might yet better last month’s achievement.

“We think there will be at least a couple more big months ahead. We’ve secured good supply.”

In reporting July’s statistics, the Motor Industry Association which represents new vehicle distributors didn’t address the ute splurge directly but instead commented that “sales of new vehicles were boosted by the recently introduced rebate scheme.”

MIA chief executive David Crawford says the overall registrations count for July of 15,053 units was 2790 up on the same month of last year.

Year to date the market is up 51.2 percent - 33,790 units - on 2020; July was the strongest on record and demand year-to-date has set a new peak.

And yes, full (BEV in market-speak) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales have grown, while interest in hybrids is strong. That’s seen as a direct response to the Clean Car initiative. Specifically 760 pure electric vehicles, 431 PHEVs and 1163 hybrids sold.

“Year to date there are 2377 passenger (not including light commercial vans) BEVs registered, compared to the same period last year there were only 701 BEVs registered.”

Registration of 9984 passenger models for July were up 21.8 percent (1784 units) on July of last year, while commercial vehicle registrations of 5069 were up 24.8 percent (1006 units).

Toyota remains the overall market leader with 16 percent market share (2434 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 13 percent (1960 units) and Ford in third with 11 percent share (1728 units).

In the passenger sector, Mitsubishi headed with 14 percent share (1435 units) followed by Toyota also with 14 percent (1357) then Suzuki (eight percent, 791 units).

ASX topped followed by the Toyota RAV4 (553 units) then the Mitsubishi Outlander (365 units).