Ute knocked out of country's top three monthly registrations

Sales of utes and commercial vehicles have dipped. Photo / George Heard

A month after the Clean Car Discount fees came into force, research into April car sales has found that a ute has not made New Zealand's top three monthly registrations for the first time in more than a decade.

Overall, registrations of 9756 new vehicles were down 25.7 per cent compared to April last year. Statistics from Motor Industry Association also found that, year to date, the market is up slightly by 3.4 per cent.

Due to the large number of hybrid vehicles that are now eligible for discounts, 8536 passenger cars and SUVs were sold - the second strongest month on record.

However, there were just 1220 registrations of new commercial vehicles - down 72 per cent.

For the first time in more than a decade, a ute was not listed in the top three monthly registrations, but Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford said he didn't expect this to become the norm.

"It is anticipated sales of utes will gradually recover as the year progresses."

The Clean Car Discount, or "feebate" scheme, charges fees on imported cars of up to $5175, money which is then used to subsidise discounts of up to $8625 for people buying EVs, hybrids and other low-polluting cars.

Crawford said, as expected, it was the weakest month of April since 2015.

"With the weak sales of utes for the month, not surprisingly the top spots for April 2022 went to passenger and SUV segments, with the small to medium segments accounting for 78 per cent of April registrations."

Last month, 572 pure electric vehicles, 1113 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and 2145 hybrid vehicles were sold.

For April, the top three models were Mitsubishi Outlander (837 units), followed by the Toyota RAV4 (716 units) with the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross in third place (544 units).