New car sales are rebounding in the country, pushed by strong growth in electric vehicle sales
The Tesla Model 3. Photo: AFP / Xinhua News Agency
There were 16,518 vehicles sold last month, up 51.5 percent from the same time last year, Motor Industry Association (MIA) said.
September was "an exceptionally strong" month for vehicles with some form of electrification in their drive train, the 3505 sold making up 21 percent of total sales.
The Ford Ranger was once again the top selling model, with 1408 sold, followed by the fully electric Tesla Model 3 (1066) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (963).
It was the first time a battery electric vehicle had made it to the top three model registrations in any one month, the MIA said.
Also for the first time, more fully electric vehicles were registered in a month than non plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Toyota remained the overall market leader with an 18 percent share, followed by Mitsubishi on 13 percent and Ford on 11 percent. Tesla was fourth with a 6 percent share.
Compact SUVs made up the biggest share of sales, followed by medium SUVs and utes.
Year to date there have been 123,000 vehicles sold, compared to 87,000 at the same time last year, up 40 percent.
The MIA said the result was remarkable given Auckland was at alert level 3 for the month.
For the year to date the Ford Ranger, the Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi Triton lead the way in sales, with the Tesla Model 3 in 11th place.