Industry body yet to offer thought on how market will perform now Clean Car has actioned.

FANS of one-tonne diesel utes who felt targeted by Government’s emissions standard that hit on April 1 led a new vehicle buying frenzy in March but a big delivery of Tesla electric cars also affected the monthly result.

David Crawford, chief executive of the Motor Industry Association – which represents all major new vehicle brands, with exception of Elon Musk’s high-profile marque – is unsurprised by last month turning out to be the strongest month of record for new passenger and light commercial registrations, with 21,044 in the books.

The big rush to buy ahead of the Clean Car initiative, also known as the ‘ute tax’, was long forecast.

The final tally was 4374 units over the previous strongest month, October of 2018 when 16,607 units were achieved.

What’s absent from the MIA in comment sent out today is any forecast of what April and the months ahead might bright. Logically, a slump could occur.

Ute buyers keen to avoid the CO2 penalties that are now impacting on anything expressing more than 192 grams of CO2 per kilometre – so, all one-tonne and larger tray decks in the market – very much led the way last month.

The top three sellers were the Mitsubishi Triton (2266 units), the Ford Ranger (1933) and Toyota Hilux (1580).

Triton’s big run was part of a strategy announced last year, when Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand announcing it had secured a mammoth order of the model specifically to encourage a sales stampede ahead of the tax, which now adds thousands of dollars in penalties to the recommended retails.

It could have also been a final clearance of the model in its current form, as a facelift version with some changes has just been announced in Australia, which shares much the same specification as this market.

Triton’s success was enough to give Mitsubishi a rare chance of enjoying market leadership ahead of more usual incumbents, Ford and Toyota.

MMNZ achieved overall market leader with 17 percent market share (3566 units), followed by Toyota with 13 percent (2767 units) then Ford (11 percent, 2362 units).

Crawford says it was the biggest month on record for light commercial vehicles, the category into which they fall, with 9841 units registered.

The electric-involved sector also showed good life, with 1777 pure electric vehicles, 431 PHEVs and 496 hybrid vehicles sold for the month.

The Tesla Model 3 had the highest registrations count, with 949 being plated. The next strongest performers were the MG ZS EV, with 129 units, and the Polestar 2 (105).

As anticipated sales of petrol hybrid vehicles were soft in March with some purchasers delaying their purchase until April to take advantage of the rebate these vehicles now attract under the Clean Car Discount. The top selling models were the Toyota RAV4 (84), the Honda Jazz (42) and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (33).

Last month’s total registration count was 35 percent up on March, 2021, and the comparable year to date counts shows the 2022 accrual to be 5230 units (12.5 percent) ahead of 2021.