One per cent of car sales this year electric

New Zealand’s electric fleet grew 8.5 per cent, or 303 units, to 3,834 vehicles in June, according to the Ministry of Transport figures released this week. This follows an 8.4 per cent increase in May and 5.4 per cent increase in April, meaning the rate of growth is continuing to climb. The number of EVs on New Zealand roads grew 143 per cent compared to June 2016. Pure EVs continue to be more popular than plug-in hybrids, accounting for 80.3 per cent of new electric registrations in Q2 of 2017. Used pure electric vehicles continue to dominate the EV market with 184 units, accounting for 60.7 per cent of new registrations. New pure electric vehicle sales fell 28 per cent to 49 units, or 16 per cent of sales. When it comes to plug-in hybrids, however, drivers preferred to buy new. New plug-in hybrid registrations almost doubled to 64 units, or 21 per cent of sales, while used plug-in hybrids accounted for just three per cent. The most popular EV make was once again the Nissan Leaf (used), with 418 sales in Q2 of 2017 for a 55.6 per cent market share. This was followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, with 99 sales for a 13 per cent share, and Tesla, with 67 sales. ‘Other’ sales accounted for 14 per cent of the market. In the regions, Auckland accounted for 51 per cent of new EV sales, followed by Canterbury, on 13 per cent, and Wellington, on 10 per cent. Month-on-month sales in the Bay of Plenty tripled in June to seven per cent of total registrations. Electric vehicles accounted for one per cent of new registrations in June for the first time. New EVs accounted for 0.7 per cent of new registrations, while used EVs accounted for 1.3 per cent. For used EVs, this is almost four times the proportion of new registrations in June 2016, which sat at 0.46 per cent. While electric vehicles are increasingly popular amongst private companies up seven per cent to 35.82 per cent, individuals made up the lion’s share of EV sales in Q2, at 59.6 per cent. Sales to ‘other’ owners, typically central, regional and local government, fell 15.4 per cent in Q1 to 4.5 per cent in the current quarter. Conventional hybrid registrations declined 16.8 per cent to 452 units, with used hybrids accounting for 91 per cent of sales.