Good time at a tough time

The March new car registrations boom took Volkswagen to a new high.

Golf 8 was a big contributor to VW’s unsurpassed count in March.

CALL it a fossil-fuelled frenzy: Volkswagen’s new-generation electric product not yet availing here definitely hasn’t kept this make from being a people’s favourite here.

No more so than last month.

The brand’s national distributor is celebrating March a being a landmark moment; its best-ever sales month for passenger products.

True, March was a huge month for new vehicle distributors in general. As reported yesterday, it delivered the highest registrations tally ever recorded for the third month of the year.

Also, the count of 528 units being registered for that period is hardly the biggest brand take for the month – Toyota basically sold twice as many Hilux utes alone in March.

Yet it’s a big deal for a European brand and pretty decent for VW, given it’s running on empty just now in respect to having the in-vogue feature of an electric-assisted drivetrain in any product. That’s coming, but in hybrid formats. None of the wholly battery ID product making headlines overseas wholly is here until 2023. That might irk outright EV fans but, clearly, there are plenty of car buyers happy to go with the mainly petrol-dedicated status quo.

A volume representing a 5.5 percent market share is, according to a spokesman, very likely the biggest sales month ever in the history of Volkswagen in New Zealand – that’s not just in the ‘modern’ period of management under the current rights holder, European Motor Distributors, but also when it was selling the eponymous Beetle under a different arrangement. 

The marque’s previous highest result was 473 units, from January of 2017, when the Tiguan R-Line was launched.

Tiguan was also a major contributor to last month’s count, with the car having released in a mid-life facelift format during that period. VW New Zealand also credits the all-new Golf 8 that arrived into dealerships at the same time as having also made an immediate important impact. 

Greg Leet, Volkswagen NZ general manager of passenger vehicles, says both these flagship models exceeded expectations, achieving more than 150 percent of their usual monthly sales averages.

“Throughout March, Golf 8 recorded 161 percent of its recent monthly sales volume average and the Tiguan Facelift achieved 145 percent of its recent monthly sales volume average as well.” 

Leet says even taking into account that Golf 8 “represents the greatest leap forward since the iconic model launched more than 45 years ago”, and Tiguan being Volkswagen’s most popular selling car worldwide, these are still exceptional results.

Can the good times keep rolling? Hmm, that’s a hard one. Reduced production counts, delays in shipping and the worldwide shortage of computer semiconductors seem to giving most car distributors a headache at the moment.

VW Group has fessed up to being affected by that, particularly with its groundbreaking ID cars that will ultimately divorce the brand from fossil fuel reliance. That news might perhaps seem ironic to NZ electric fans aggrieved that the IDs are still several years from local introduction.

Nonetheless Leet says his operation will “continue to do all we can to replicate these sales targets in coming months.”

He also points out that, while pure electrics are out, VW will be provision performance R models this year - Golf R, Tiguan R and Touareg R, the latter of which runs a plug-in electric drivetrain.

“The Touareg R will very much be the performance brand-shaper, and we’re excited to demonstrate this highly anticipated performance model when it arrives as a PHEV.”

Leet says VW remains committed to sustainability and its future electric vehicle roadmap is paving the ‘way to zero-emission’ mobility for everyone. Globally by 2025, at least 1.5 million electric Volkswagen cars are to be sold.

Record March despite supply disruptions

Vehicles are fast-tracking to customers.

Toyota Hilux was the top-selling model in March.

CONSTRICTED new vehicle supply continues to hamper distributors – though last month’s registrations count might suggest otherwise.

Last month 15,498 new vehicle were registered. It’s the highest March count since record-keeping began back in the 1970s.

That this tally represents a massive 86.3 percent up on the same month last year is easily explained – the country went into the Covid-19 Level 4 in March of 2020, so distribution, sale and delivery was highly restricted. April last year was also bleak, with 1039 registrations, a 90 percent fall on April of 2019.

Last month’s accrual follows a record February, when 12,488 registrations were notified. Year to date the market is up 27.6 percent (9046 units) compared to the first quarter of 2020.

And all this is despite supply disruption, resultant from Covid-19 though a global shortage of semiconductor is also influencing. This is a rebound from manufacturers having cut chip orders as vehicle sales fell last year. They have found themselves at the back of the queue when the market rebounded. The entire global car industry buys about $US37 billion worth of chips.

“A year on from our first Covid-19 lockdown, our sector is still operating under disrupted supply arrangements and supply shortages,” says David Crawford, chief executive of the distributor organisation, the Motor Industry Association.

“As shipments arrive, vehicles are going straight through Customs, distributor pre-delivery inspections and entry compliance, to the franchised dealer and on to the new owner, who invariably has been on a wait list.”

Most popular vehicle last month was the Toyota Hilux, which continues to enjoy buoyant sales following a massive facelift late last year. In March it recorded 1019 registrations to claim a 19 percent share of the commercial market. Arch-rival Ford Ranger accounted for 828 sales to sit in second spot, with Mitsubishi Triton third on 691.

In the passenger segment the Mitsubishi Outlander again led the way with 467 registrations, comfortably ahead of the Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4.

Of the total of 15,498 registrations, 424 (2.7 percent) were pure electric vehicles. There were also 150 PHEVs and 855 hybrids sold during the month.

Toyota remains the overall market leader with a 15 percent market share, followed by Mitsubishi on 11 percent and Ford on nine percent.

RAV4 hybrid rising as market drops

New vehicle sales in May were down, but the leading player still had something to cheer about.

THE new vehicle market was down by around a third last month, but a big surge of interest in the RAV4 during that period has buoyed its distributor.

Toyota New Zealand says the crossover achieving 538 registrations to place as the top-selling car in May, when 8313 new vehicle registrations were accrued in total, also reveals a scenario that might outwardly might seem surreal given the market condition.

At a time when new vehicle sales are dropping, this car is in hot demand – so much so that anyone ordering one now won’t see it until perhaps July or August. 

Actually, it’s just the battery-assisted edition that’s on the ‘most wanted’ list. TNZ always knew the hybrid would be popular – it surged ahead at launch simply because every dealer wanted one as a demonstrator – but is impressed nonetheless that the private market is driving the car’s progress now.

And there’s another twist. The RAV4s that have been built for the rental market, which now wants out of new vehicle with international tourism now kaput, cannot be diverted to meet that demand, as hire companies only ordered the petrol pure variants.

In discussing the May count, TNZ chief operating officer Neeraj Lala says he has around 800 RAV4 hybrid pre-orders still unfulfilled. Most of those cars should be delivered in June, the remainder probably in July. 

All up, TNZ’s passenger volume in May is down around eight percent year-on-year, not so bad all things considered. What factors into this is that it was delivering cars ordered before lockdown.

As for what happens from now on? “Our new car inquiry rate is low,” he concedes. “But we have this incredible back order of deliveries, so for the next couple of months we will still look quite good. So, in that sense, it’s quite good. And the (ongoing) demand for hybrid RAV4 is simply phenomenal, a little bit unprecedented.” 

The Motor Industry Association, which speaks for distributors, has also signalled a degree of satisfaction with the May result, which though well off the same month last year, when 12,5259 cars and light commercials were sold, nonetheless represents a relatively decent post lockdown result, given the circumstances.

“The month of May re-opened for business albeit in a constrained manner,” noted chief executive David Crawford.

“It was a challenging month operating under alert level two and an economically depressed environment.”

Year-to-date the entire new vehicle market is down by 19,622 units, a 32 percent drop on the count for the same period of 2019.

Registrations of 5401 passenger and SUVs for last month were 29.2 percent (2223 units) below 2019 volumes while a commercial vehicle tally of 2912 units represents a 37.2 percent decrease.

After RAV4 the Ford Ranger installed as the second-strongest seller for May, though with 498 units, with another Toyota, the Hilux, nabbing third place, just 58 units behind. Lala was also stoked with that result.

Toyota was the overall market leader with 19 percent market share with 1611 units, followed by Holden, with nine percent (760 units) then Ford (eight percent, 702 units).

The MIA has joined those calling for the Government to bring the country to Level One Covid-19 restrictions “sooner rather than later.”

 Commented Crawford: “The MIA shares the views of many that with no new Covid-19 cases for the last 11 days and no known community spread for at least two months, we should be looking to move to alert level 1.

“The country is better prepared now to manage the odd case of Covid-19 should it arise. Our health system has improved significantly in terms of testing capability, contact tracing and hospital intensive care capacity.

“It is time to get our economy moving forward while maintaining our health gains.”