Electric-vehicle sales bomb

Sales of new and used battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) predictably nosedived in January – the first full month of market activity since the clean car discount was scrapped on December 31.

When it came to the new-vehicle sector, first-time registrations of BEVs came in at 244 for January, which was down from 1,205 and by 79.8 per cent compared to the same month last year. 

New PHEVs fell by 59 per cent from 493 to 202, although petrol hybrids climbed by 13.1 per cent to 2,434 from 2,153.

New cars powered by petrol dropped by 3.7 per cent to 4,340 from 4,509, while new diesels increased by 1.2 per cent to 896 from 885.

As for the used-imports market, there were only 44 BEVs registered in the passenger segment last month according to NZTA data published on February 1. That was 77.7 per cent decrease when compared to 197 in January 2023. 

As for used PHEVs, the total dropped by 26.6 per cent from 143 to 105 over the same timescale.

Registrations of used petrol hybrid cars in January climbed by 25.2 per cent to 3,891 from 3,107. There was a year-on-year jump of 35 per cent in used-imported petrol-fuelled passenger vehicle registrations from 3,520 to 4,752. Used diesels dropped by 19.6 per cent to 123 from 153.