NZ's best-selling cars, SUVs and utes revealed for the first half of 2026

After being toppled from the country's top spot last year, the Ford Ranger is well on track to once again being New Zealand's best-selling new vehicle.

With six months of registrations in the can, the Ranger holds a comfortable lead not only of the light commercial vehicle charts, but of New Zealand's overall registration figures.

Year-to-date, 4914 Ranger models have been registered in New Zealand. This gives it a commanding lead of its nearest rivals; the Toyota Hilux (3663 registrations) and the Toyota RAV4 (3220 registrations).

The RAV4, last year's best-selling new vehicle, has had its year impacted by the departure of an outgoing generation and the arrival of a new generation model, prompting an inevitable dip in monthly performance as the brand finished off one generation and welcomed another.

The new sixth-gen RAV4 has been a considerable success for Toyota already, with the brand confirming a six-month waiting list for HEV variants.

There's a significant gap from the market-leading top three and the rest of the field. The Mitsubishi Triton, another model that's received a mild update this year, has clocked 1932 registrations, seeing it head off the Tesla Model Y (1908), Mitsubishi ASX (1807), MItsubishi Outlander (1555), Ford Everest (1494), Toyota Corolla Cross (1494), and the 10th-placed Toyota Hiace (1489).

In a year where the price of petrol has been a particularly pressing topic of discussion, electric vehicles have had a strong resurgence. The Tesla Model Y has been the biggest individual winner for the segment, jumping to fifth overall and second in the passenger vehicle ranks.

One model that's shown a decline this year is the Kia Seltos. The affordable crossover has gone from being the country's fifth most popular passenger vehicle and eighth most popular nameplate overall at the end of 2025 to falling outside the combined top 15. Admittedly, a new Seltos is just around the corner.

Whilst no Chinese nameplates made it into the country's top 10 most popular models, brands from the region have made considerable gains this year so far.

MG, BYD, and GWM have all deeply embedded themselves in the passenger vehicle sales charts. The three brands ended June fourth, fifth, and seventh respectively for passenger vehicle marketshare. Chery made steady progress, too, ending the first half of the year in 13th. Combined, the four marques account for 16% of the country's passenger vehicle market share.

Top 15 new passenger car and commercial vehicles (YTD June 2026)

Top 15 new passenger car & SUV models (YTD June 2026)

Top 15 new passenger car & SUV makes (YTD June 2026)

Light Commercial Vehicles

On a year to date basis, registrations increased by 942 units, or 5.8 percent, compared with the

same period in 2025.

Top 15 new commercial vehicle models (YTD June 2026)

Top 15 new commercial vehicle makes (YTD June 2026)