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NZ’s electric car sales dropped 70% last year while global sales rose, but the Transport Minister says his policies aren’t to blame
As Marc Daalder wrote:
Perhaps the supply problem is a reflection of that second issue Bishop cited: low demand. Why would an automaker send EVs to New Zealand if no one will buy them and they’ll be sold cut-price, potentially at a loss?
In 2023, New Zealand was among the world’s leading adopters of electric vehicles. But in 2024, it saw the second steepest decline in year-on-year EV sales – a 70 percent decrease, compared with the global average of a 15.6 percent increase in sales.
The cause for this is clear. The motor industry has repeatedly pointed to the Government’s decision to axe the Clean Car Discount – which placed fees on higher-emitting vehicles at the point of sale to fund rebates for EVs and some hybrids – as the cause of the collapse of New Zealand’s electric car market.
Had EV uptake in New Zealand simply continued at its 2023 rate, 30,000 more EVs would have been registered here – a 25 percent increase in the total size of the electric fleet. And that’s just if the adoption rate was flat, not growing like it has elsewhere in the world.
The expensive fuel prices triggered by the choking of the Hormuz Strait were not stopping an undercurrent of change, Rewiring Aotearoa chief executive Mike Casey said. "We're talking about kitchen table or dinner table decisions rather than board- room table decisions." Casey, who runs a fully electric cherry farm in Central Otago, said New Zealand could benefit from introducing a “salary sacrifice" scheme similar to one available in Australia for people wanting to buy new electric cars. “We can get brand new basic electric cars onto the road ... for under $200 a week, at least for people in New Zealand, for our essential workers, for our teachers, for our nurses, and that includes registration, insurance, maintenance, energy and the car itself."
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