Electric vehicles dominate New Zealand new car sales

For the first time more than half of all new vehicles sold in New Zealand in a calendar month were electric.

According to website EVDB.co.nz, battery-electric and hybrid electric vehicles made up 50.8 per cent of December 2023 sales – up 18.1 per cent year-on-year – with 39.2 per cent of all new vehicles sold being battery-electric cars.

Led by the MG4, a total of 3357 battery-electric vehicles were sold, and combined with 987 plug-in hybrids, made up the majority of new car registrations.

Petrol-powered vehicles accounted for 15.6 per cent (1338) of sales, while diesel made up only 2.7 per cent (288) for the final month of 2023.

Tesla was the most popular electric vehicle brand in New Zealand throughout 2023, selling 4895 cars, with BYD – which produces petrol-electric hybrid vehicles as well as battery-electric cars – finishing second on 3713 sales, ahead of MG, Kia and Hyundai.

The highest uptake in Australia was in the ACT, where 3396 electric cars were sold in 2023 – up 165 per cent from 1280 in 2022 – making up 18.3 per cent of all new cars sold there.

The ACT’s result is significantly more than the national electric vehicle share of 7.2 per cent for the year.

The New Zealand sales milestone was passed as the Clean Car Discount (CCD), which imposed charges on higher emissions emitting vehicles and granted rebates to low-emission cars, such as electric vehicles, was scrapped as of midnight 31 December 2023.

Starting in July 2021, the CCD offered rebates as high as $NZ7015 ($AU6527) with similar penalties for the most polluting vehicles, with the threshold changed to see more petrol-powered cars charged in July 2023.

The Australian federal government ruled out adopting a similar programme here.

The 2023 New Zealand election – held on 14 October – prompted an increase in electric vehicle sales for fear a change of government would see the CCD potentially scrapped.

Electric and hybrid-electric vehicles surged to a 34 per cent share of new passenger car sales in September 2023 ahead of the election, an increase of around 10 per cent on the previous month.

In December, the newly-elected NZ Government passed legislation to end the CCD, again seeing an increase in electric vehicle sales as New Zealand buyers pushed to benefit ahead of the scheme’s cancellation.

The proliferation of electric vehicles in New Zealand had come off the back of the country’s national program from 2016, when the government began working with agencies on plans to ‘de-carbon’ its transport sector.

This included a nationwide public EV charging infrastructure network and an ‘EVRoam’ live database for users to easily find charging facilities across the country.

The goal of the government at the time was for an EV charger every 150-200km of national highway.

New car sales declined in New Zealand in 2023, with 149,005 light vehicle (less than 3.5 tonnes) sales down from 164,771 in 2022.

The Ford Ranger was the most popular vehicle in 2023 in both New Zealand and Australia, with Toyota the best-selling brand in both countries.