WELLINGTON - Chinese automaker Great Wall is making deep inroads into New Zealand's commercial vehicle market this year, according to figures from the country's Motor Industry Association (MIA) Friday.

Total registrations of new commercial vehicles in April increased by 19.7 percent, or 266 units, on a yearly basis, although the year-to-date figures were 25 units down on the same period last year, according to the MIA.

On the MIA's top 15 list, the Ford Ranger was the biggest selling commercial vehicle last month with 279 registrations, followed just one unit behind on 278 registrations by the Toyota Hilux, then by the Nissan Navara on 214 registrations.

The Toyota Hilux remained the top selling commercial vehicle for the year to date with 898 registrations followed by the Nissan Navara and the Ford Ranger.

However, the MIA figures showed Great Wall sold 59 commercial vehicles last month, up 3.65 percent on April last year, making it the sixth best selling make after Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda.

In the year-to-date figures, Great Wall ranked seventh ?after the same five makes plus Volkswagen ?with 262 commercial vehicles sold, up 4.11 percent on the same period last year.

For the whole of 2011, Great Wall ranked 11th, with 412 commercial sales, up 2 percent from 2010.

Great Wall's V200 model was the ninth best-selling model last month, with 35 sales, while its V240 sold 24 and came in at 14th. In the year to date, 139 V200s and 123 V240s were sold, ranking 11th and 12th respectively.

For the whole of last year, only the V240 made the MIA's top 15 list, ranking 13th with 314 sales.

The MIA said both the passenger and commercial vehicle markets were strong last month, with passenger car sales up 27.5 percent in April last year to 5,430.

"The strong showing this month of the new car market can in part be explained by low sales last April as a result of the impact of the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami," said MIA chief executive officer Perry Kerr in a statement.