Top Selling Utes in New Zealand

Utes are part of the Kiwi identity. But which utes do Kiwis love most? Canstar takes a look at the top-selling utes in New Zealand.

Source: LakeStream/Shutterstock.com
Source: LakeStream/Shutterstock.com

Utes are part of the Kiwi identity. But which utes do Kiwis love most? Canstar takes a look at the top-selling utes in New Zealand.

Utes are the most popular vehicles in New Zealand. In the table below, we list the top-selling utes in New Zealand based on registration numbers from the NZTA.

Last year, while sales of passenger cars were up 12% year on year, after a couple of years of poor sales, fewer new utes hit the roads. Overall, sales of the country's most popular five utes were down 10%.

And while the top four most popular utes remain the Ranger, Hilux, Triton and Navara, it's interesting to see the BYD Shark 6 make the top five after just a year on the market.

Top-selling utes in NZ

Rank

Top Selling Utes
2024

Top Selling Utes
2025

1

Ford Ranger (11,747)

Ford Ranger (9650)

2

Toyota Hilux (7295)

Toyota Hilux (6568)

3

Mitsubishi Triton (4230)

Mitsubishi Triton (3279)

4

Nissan Navara (1890)

Nissan Navara (2446)

5

Isuzu D-Max (1296)

BYD Shark 6 (1882)

Source: NZTA

Top-selling passenger cars in NZ

To give the above figures some context, here are the top-ten passenger cars for the same periods, which highlight the ongoing strength of ute sales:


Top Selling Cars 2024

Top Selling Cars 2025

1

Toyota RAV4 (10,533)

Toyota RAV4 (11,295)

2

Mitsubishi ASX (3763)

Mitsubishi ASX (4970)

3

Mitsubishi Outlander (3248)

Mitsubishi Outlander (4309)

4

Kia Seltos (3140)

Ford Everest (3323)

5

Suzuki Swift (2704)

Kia Seltos (3189)

6

Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (2394)

Toyota Yaris Cross (2018)

7

Ford Everest (2341)

MG ZS (1971)

8

Toyota Corolla (1854)

Toyota Corolla (1953)

9

Toyota Yaris Cross (1841)

Hyundai Tucson (1841)

10

Kia Sportage (1730)

Suzuki Swift (1825)

Source: NZTA


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Bruce Pitchers is Canstar's NZ Editor. 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 DrivenStuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines 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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