NZ EV sales up over 200% following Clean Car Discount

To say the nation’s distributors are split on the government’s Clean Car Standard is quite the understatement. But, it seems that most are big fans of the Clean Car Discount. In part, it seems, because it’s helping them sell heaps of electric vehicles. 

The Motor Industry Association has released registration data for electric vehicles for 2021, indicating a significant rise in sales that lines up with the July introduction of the Clean Car Discount — an incentive that offers either a $8,625 rebate or a $5,750 rebate to those purchasing a new EV or PHEV priced under $80,000. 

The MIA says that 5,144 new electric vehicles were registered in the second half of 2021 — a rise of 210.4 per cent over the 1,657 new electric vehicles registered in the first half. This helped push the number of electric vehicles registered locally beyond 35,000. 

There was a similar rise in plug-in electric vehicle registrations, too. Second half registrations grew by 151.6 per cent from 622 to 1,860. 

The figures can be taken with one slight grain of salt, given that the year was impacted by inconsistent supply chain issues for various brands. At the same time, however, the second half of the year achieved its figures despite a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. 

This increase accounted for an overall year-on-year growth of 344 per cent in the case of EVs and 224 per cent for PHEVs, relative to the MIA’s figures from 2020. Hybrid sales also grew significantly, by 61 per cent from 8,557 to 13,794 registrations. 

As previously reported, the Tesla Model 3 was the best selling electric vehicle of the year by quite some margin, with 3,271 registrations. This means the American model accounts for well over half of the year’s EV sales — thanks largely to the popular price-reduced entry-level Standard Range variant. 

One of the few brands to comment on the Clean Car Discount directly is BMW. As previously reported, the brand’s submission in response to the government’s Land Transport Amendment Bill requested that the government consider increasing the rebate threshold beyond $80,000. 

It’s keen for the threshold to be increased to $150,000. “This will influence all consumers,” BMW said in its submission. “We believe it will add more than 47 per cent to available premium EV volume.”