EV sales crashes badly after New Zealand ends clean car discount

Electric vehicle (EV) sales in New Zealand crashed badly in January while light commercial sales jumped 53 percent compared to December 2023.

Motor Industry Association (MIA) shared that petrol and diesel vehicles now accounted for 96 percent of all vehicles registered in January 2024.

There were only 244 new battery electric light vehicles sold throughout the month compared to 3469 units sold in December last year. The difference in sales is big and comes after the government ended the clean car discount which ended on December 31.

EV owners now have to pay road-user charges of $76 per 1000 kilometers from April 1, 2024. It also includes $12.44 to $13.71 in admin fees for every pre-paid block of mileage with plug-in hybrid (PHEV) owners paying $53/1000km.

China’s BYD tops the list of most sold EVs with its Seal model and Tesla Model Y comes second, Toyota’s BZ4X also made its debut in the country.

There were 202 PHEVs sold in the first month of 2024 compared to 987 in December. To resolve some concerns, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said that the road-user charge rate for plug-in hybrids had been set lower in acknowledgment but some PHEV owners say their vehicles’ small, degraded-over-time batteries see them largely driving on petrol.

Meanwhile, light commercial vehicles saw 3793 unit shipments with a 53.5% year-over-year surge compared to January 2023. The top three models were the Ford Ranger (1470 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux (657 units) and Mitsubishi Triton (330 units).

The sales of new petrol and diesel light passenger vehicles increased from 1594 in December to 5308 in January.

(via – Nzherald)