EV sales might be booming, but Kiwis still love their utes
The New Zealand Motor Industry Association’s full new-vehicle sales data for July has been revealed, showing sales booms for both plug-in vehicles and utes — a total of 15,053 new vehicles registered.
All up, the local market is up 51.2 per cent for the first seven months of 2021 relative to the same period last year. NZ Autocar understands that numerous distributors across the spectrum are set to record their best years ever if this momentum continues.
The figures show that a total of 760 new pure electric vehicles and 431 new plug-in hybrids were registered off the back of the government’s new Clean Car Discount scheme in its first month of operation.
Simultaneously, utes continued to dominate proceedings, with MIA CEO David Crawford saying that it’s one of the strongest months of the year. The Ford Ranger topped the month comfortably, with 1418 registrations to the second-placed Toyota Hilux’s 809.
Mitsubishi’s ASX was third (737), ahead of the Toyota RAV4 (553), Mitsubishi Triton (489), Mitsubishi Outlander (365), Mazda CX-5 (305), Nissan Qashqai (293), and the Suzuki Swift (275) in ninth.
Cracking the top 10 for the first time was the MG ZS (270) — assisted by handy sales of its fully electric variant, which is still listed as the country’s cheapest electric car.
Notably absent from the top 10 was Kia. Its formerly front-running Sportage and Stonic only recorded 162 and 133 registrations, respectively — the Korean firm likely battling the sporadic supply issues that have impacted the industry all year.
July signaled the country’s best month to date of plug-in vehicles (both new and used). A total of 1944 plug-ins were registered according to the Ministry of Transport, representing over 1000 more registrations than the previous record month.
“The Clean Car Discount started on 1 July and appears to have driven unprecedented demand for EVs. We will continue to monitor the uptake over the coming months, but early signs are very encouraging, particularly given some importers faced stock shortages,” said Drive Electric chair Mark Gilbert.
“Members are telling us that they have never seen consumer interest in electric vehicles quite like it. Hits on the Drive Electric website, which independently details EV models available are also up by tens of thousands.”
