Rival CEOs each expressing confidence as latest counts land.

Mitsubishi cites high consumer interest in PHEV product, notably the Outlander (above), has fuelled its sale surge. Toyota NZ has acknowledged challenges in securing product, but says that is easing, with Hilux (below) placing as the country’s top-selling model in May.

“WE’LL give them a jolly good fright … which will be good for them. But, yes, I’m still optimistic we can do it.”

This today from Daniel Cook, chief executive of Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand, restating confidence in his brand beating long-time incumbent Toyota New Zealand as this year’s top selling car and light commercial brand.

The comment comes after initial data for May shows TNZ was back in control last month to point where the year-to-date registrations lead MMNZ holds is now just over 1000 vehicles. That’s half the buffer since the ambition to overthrow was initially divulged, a week ago.

TNZ, which has clear history on its side - 34 consecutive years of sector domination, this beginning immediately after MMNZ enjoyed its only time as chart leader, two year back-to-back years – has also returned fire.

In voicing that he is also “highly optimistic we will achieve a record-breaking year following one of our slowest starts in a long time”, TNZ chief executive Neeraj Lala has offered an interesting slant to the fighting talk that has intrigued Cook.

As much as sights remain set on market leadership, Lala says there are other issues to consider, notably reduction of CO2 and “meeting the mobility needs of kiwis (sic).”

Thought about environmental responsibility is not lost on MMNZ’s top management, with Cook reminding that his brand’s ascendancy over the past 18 months has built largely on the popularity of the Eclipse Cross and Outlander sports utilities in their low emissions and highly economical plug-in hybrid formats - vehicles Toyota still has no answer to, outside of its Lexus luxury sub-marque.

In a release to media today, Lala says “our responsibility as market leader extends beyond selling cars.

“It extends to sustainability, meeting the mobility needs of kiwis to help them move freely, and contributing to the communities we operate in.”

This moves beyond just introducing low emission products, he has explained, but also “the journey towards mobility and car sharing technologies, development of the hydrogen economy, and contributing technological innovation to alternative sectors such as the flourishing marine industry.”

The year to date has been a hard slog for TNZ and with Toyota Japan forecasting stock shortages being to continue there’s speculation it might be steeling up to a sub-20,000 unit total – something it hasn’t experienced since the early 2000s.

That sort of count, if realised, would be up to 12k units short of the totals it has achieved between 2017 (it’s best year yet, with 32,278 registrations) and 2021.

TNZ has not shared its forecasts and it did not open up today about stocking challenges.

From external assessment, it seems that while all car distributors are feeling the pinch for supply – in the main because of coronavirus-related issues, including the lockdown in China and a microchip shortage, and disruption caused by war in Ukraine – TNZ has been particularly hurt over recent months.

It signalled early in the year that effectively every vehicle it sells has a waiting list due to supply disruption. Some popular models ordered now will not be delivered for 12 months and, according to the brand’s website, others simply can no longer ordered.

On top of this, last week Toyota Japan twice cut its global production plan for June and signalled its full-year output estimate could be lowered.

Lala, for his part, has expressed today that, while TNZ is “not being complacent on our bid for market leadership for a 35th consecutive year”, it is starting to see “our vehicle production return amidst global supply chain disruption”.

That seems to reflect in May registrations figures published today by industry magazine Autotalk. It cited Toyota’s Hilux topping May. The magazine relies on Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency data.

The Hilux led the month with 942 registrations, heading the Toyota RAV4 (923), the Outlander (824), Kia Stonic (564), and Mitsubishi ASX (402) in fifth place.

In total, 10,575 passenger vehicles and 2762 commercial vehicles were registered in May, a 26.8 percent lift on April’s 9757 registrations, but still 8.3 percent down on, May 2021.

The fight between the brands, which headquarter just an hour’s drive apart – TNZ in Manawatu, MMNZ in Porirua – seems set to remain a fascination.

While the full set of May’s sales data for the car industry has yet to be revealed, raw counts specific to the protagonists suggest that MMNZ has sold far sold 1056 more vehicles than TNZ to date this year.

When Cook first made his comment, in an interview with National Business Review, he was relying on data to the end of April, which showed a 2286-unit lead.

Overall MMNZ seems to have achieved 11,765 registrations year to date versus 10,709 for TNZ.

TNZ registrations counts have been desultory by historic standard in recent months, while MMNZ’s have grown. It has almost doubled its sales in the 2022 financial year. Topping March registrations was cause for big celebration in itself, as the last time Mitsubishi had ‘won’ a month was also three decades ago.

Cook says his office is forecasting for TNZ to sell 25,000 units this year; a count he has “every confidence” Mitsubishi can also achieve.

MMNZ’s sales grew 92 percent in the 12 months to March 31, selling 23,665 units compared to 12,360 in the 2021 financial year.

The brands’ competition on NZ turf goes back to 1972, when production of Mitsubishi vehicles began in Wellington, three years after the first Toyotas arrived.

Back then, the scene’s big fish were Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, plus mainstream British brands now long departed.

Mitsubishi started as a Todd Motors franchise but gradually grew to become the business’s most important asset. MMNZ formed after vehicle assembly ended in 1998 at the Todd plant it continues to use as a headquarters.

During the 1980s’ and 1990s’, Mitsubishi was a top five and, occasion, top three performers, but by 2011 had fallen to No.8.

“For a long time now, we've been building our brand in New Zealand gradually incrementing our sales and the pandemic set a new foundation for business, and there were a lot of challenges,” Cook told NBR.

He attributed his brand’s acceleration to the unpredicted huge boom in the economy, which drove a lot of demand for vehicles, the opportunities that supply issues for others created, and the Clean Car standard – which offers penalises high emissions vehicles but rewards low CO2 count cars.

MMNZ benefitted from the rush on one-tonne utes that occurred in the months leading up to the April 1 law, by shipping in thousands of additional Triton traydecks in hope they’d be snapped up (and were). The demand has now fallen away, but might be expected to pick up again in the latter part of the year, Cook said.

Meantime, its PHEV sales are increasing, having fired up significantly once the a Government rebate kicked in, though Cook reminds that MMNZ has held 60 percent of the PHEV market since 2013, well before any assistance availed.

Cook opined that returning to No.1 would build public confidence in the brand. MMNZ might in turn open a wider network of dealerships – more are planned over the next 18 months - and increase exposure.

“I’m still confident we can do it,” Cook said today.

“Nobody quite knows what is going to happen this year but we are seeing huge demand for our plug-in hybrid vehcles particularly and that, plus the support we are getting from our parent brand in providing stock to this market, is really driving our confidence at the moment.

“We are a much smaller team and brand than Toyota, so we shouldn’t be able to beat them. It has never been a long-term strategy to beat Toyota.

“We’re going back, I think, around 35 years (to the last time) to when we were last No.1. But right now we are doing just that and we intend to hold on to that (lead).”

Realisation of this would go down well in Japan, he says. “Given the size of Toyota globally compared to Mitsubishi they would be pretty pleased if we managed to achieve that.”

One factor that could influence is the role of rental companies, which in pre-covid days bought in unsurpassed bulk which had huge imprint on distributor volumes, though at the expense of big discounts only Toyota seemed comfortable to accommodate, though three years ago it stated intent to diminish that focus and instead lift private buyer counts.

“Now the borders have reopened those rental companies are lining up to achieve as many cars as they can get.” said Cook, adding that it was not a sector his brand involved in deeply.