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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.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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