Top Selling Cars in New Zealand
According to the most recent government statistics, from 2013 to 2023, the number of cars, utes and motorbikes on our roads grew by a third, from around 3.4m to 4.5m.
And over the past few years, our appetite for new automobiles has remained strong:
- 2021: 112,008 new cars
- 2022: 116,334 new cars
- 2023: 110,488 new cars
- 2024: 87,435 new cars
However, last year, as you can see from the above figures, due to the tighter economic climate, cars sales were down considerably, by around 21%.
It’s worth noting that commercial vehicle sales, including ever-popular ute models such as the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Mitsubishi Triton and the Nissan Navara, were up, increasing 7.5% from 38,518 sales in 2023, to 41,393 in 2024. Although these number are down on the 48,479 new commercial vehicle registrations in 2022.
So, how are car sales progressing so far in 2025? Let’s take a look.
In this article
→Related article: Top Selling Utes in New Zealand
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Top 10 selling car models New Zealand
The top five best-selling cars in 2022 and 2023 were the same: the RAV4, Outlander, Model Y, Swift and Eclipse Cross.
However, last year, there was a bit of a shake-up at the top. The Eclipse Cross was usurped by its little brother, the ASX, and the Model Y dropped out of the top 10 best-sellers altogether.
Just 826 new Tesla Model Ys hit our roads last year. That’s a drop of 79% on the Model Y’s sales numbers (3936) over 2023. Did the end of the Clean Car Discount, the introduction of road user charges for EV owners and increased competition in the EV market pull the plug on Tesla sales? It certainly looks like it!
| Top Selling Cars 2024 | Top Selling Cars February 2025 | Top Selling Cars 2025 |
| 1 Toyota RAV4 (10,533) | 1 Toyota RAV4 (719) | 1 Toyota RAV4 (1739) |
| 2 Mitsubishi ASX (3763) | 2 Mitsubishi Outlander (426) | 2 Kia Seltos (646) |
| 3 Mitsubishi Outlander (3248) | 3 Kia Seltos (285) | 3 Mitsubishi Outlander (641) |
| 4 Kia Seltos (3140) | 4 Mitsubishi ASX (245) | 4 Mitsubishi ASX (569) |
| 5 Suzuki Swift (2704) | 5 MG ZS (195) | 5 Suzuki Swift (427) |
| 6 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (2394) | 6 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (182) | 6 MG ZS (359) |
| 7 Ford Everest (2341) | 7 Suzuki Swift (178) | 7 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (340) |
| 8 Toyota Corolla (1854) | 8 Nissan X-Trail (177) | 8 Ford Everest (329) |
| 9 Toyota Yaris Cross (1841) | 9 Mazda CX-5 | MG3 | Toyota Corolla Cross (144) | 9 Kia Stonic (315) |
| 10 Kia Sportage (1730) | 10 Kia Stonic (142) | 10 Nissan X-Trail (294) |
Top 10 selling electric car models New Zealand
In 2022, EV and hybrid passenger vehicles accounted for just over a third of all new car registrations. And in 2023 that percentage increased to 41%. Overall, pure EV models increased from a 10% market share in 2022 to 14.5% in 2023.
However, it’s clear the end of the EV subsidies has had a big effect. While hybrid sales remain strong, new EV numbers have plummeted. Just 5% of vehicles sold last year were EVs. And it’s important to note that of the 34,635 hybrid cars registered in NZ last year, just 10% were plug-in hybrids, this compares to 23% across the same period in 2023, which probably reflects the fact that plug-ins are now subject to road user charges.
So far this year, petrol-hybrid sales have increased their market share, while EV sales are up slightly:
| Sales by Engine Type 2025 |
| 54.4% Petrol/Diesel |
| 33% Petrol Hybrid |
| 7.4% EV |
| 5.2% Plug-in Hybrid |
Top selling totally electric vehicle models
Over 2024, EV sales were down 70% on 2023’s numbers: 6341 new EVs were registered last year, compared to 21,032 during 2023. However, despite many new models breaking into the top-seller list, Tesla remained the country’s most popular EV.
This year, so far, Tesla has lost market share, to the benefit of BYD and Polestar:
| Top Selling EVs 2024 | Top Selling February 2025 | Top Selling EVs 2025 |
| 1 Tesla Model Y (826) | 1 Polestar 2 (65) | 1 BYD Atto 3 (134) |
| 2 Tesla Model 3 (461) | 2 Tesla Model Y (59) | 2 Polestar 2 (94) |
| 3 Ford Mustang Mach-E (452) | 3 BYD Atto 3 (49) | 3 Tesla Model Y (79) |
| 4 BYD Atto 3 (383) | 4 Mercedes-Benz EQE (43) | 4 Mercedes-Benz EQE (49) |
| 5 Nissan Leaf (308) | 5 Tesla Model 3 | Toyota BZ4X (27) | 5 Toyota BZ4X (41) |
| 6 Volkswagen ID.4 (275) | 6 Mercedes-Benz EQA (20) | 6 Tesla Model 3 | GWM Ora (40) |
| 7 MG4 (256) | 7 MG4 (18) | 7 KGM Torres (38) |
| 8 Volkswagen ID.5 (232) | 8 Lexus RZ (17) | 8 BMW X1 (35) |
| 9 Kia EV9 (197) | 9 Kia Niro (16) | 9 Lexus RZ (33) |
| 10 Polestar 2 (188) | 10 Mini Aceman (13) | 10 Kia EV5 | Nissan Leaf (32) |
→Related article: Best Hybrid Cars in New Zealand
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New Zealand’s favourite passenger car brands
Japanese brands have long been the top selling cars in NZ, especially if you also count commercial vehicles. Between them, Toyota and Mitsubishi make up a third of the market.
However, while Japanese brands hold a large share of the overall market, Korea’s Kia and Hyundai are also big players in the passenger sector. But it’s the upstart brands of GWM and MG that have made the biggest inroads into the top car charts over the past two years, displacing EV brands BYD and Tesla in the process.
New passenger car/SUV registrations by brand, no. sales and market share %:
| Top Selling Brands 2024 | Top Selling Brands February 2025 | Top Selling Brands 2025 |
| 1 Toyota 20,723 (24%) | 1 Toyota 1518 (22%) | 1 Toyota 3205 (21%) |
| 2 Mitsubishi 9916 (11%) | 2 Mitsubishi 781 (11%) | 2 Kia 1531 (10%) |
| 3 Kia 8683 (10%) | 3 Kia 674 (10%) | 3 Mitsubishi 1446 (10%) |
| 4 Suzuki 5198 (6%) | 4 MG 431 (6%) | 4 Suzuki 899 (6%) |
| 5 Ford 4664 (5%) | 5 Suzuki 393 (6%) | 5 MG 752 (5%) |
| 6 Mazda 3731 (4%) | 6 Honda 322 (5%) | 6 Mazda 639 (4%) |
| 7 Hyundai 3641 (4%) | 7 Mazda 309 (4%) | 7 Ford 633 (4%) |
| 8 Honda 3176 (4%) | 8 Ford 258 (4%) | 8 Honda 630 (4%) |
| 9 MG 3067 (4%) | 9 Nissan 248 (4%) | 9 GWM 550 (4%) |
| 10 GWM 2636 (3%) | 10 GWM 228 (3%) | 10 Nissan 485 (3%) |
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About the author of this page
Bruce Pitchers is Canstar NZ’s Content Manager. An experienced finance reporter, he has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in Australia, the UK and NZ, including ACP, Are Media, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. As a freelancer, he has worked for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority and major banks and investment companies on both sides of the Tasman.
In his role at Canstar, he has been a regular commentator in the NZ media, including on the Driven, Stuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines and newspapers, including Woman’s Day and New Idea. He is also the co-author of the murder-mystery puzzle book 5 Minute Murder.
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