EV registrations climb at similar rate

New Zealand now has 13,659 electric vehicle registrations – up more than 470 in April compared with March.

That’s a similar increase to the March and January results, although about 60 down on the February figure, according to just released Ministry of Transport EV statistics.

Most of the April rise is again in used light pure electrics – up 270 on March to 7894 in April with the Nissan Leaf the most popular in that category.

New light pure electric registrations increased by 95 on March to reach 2322 in April.

A jump in new light plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) was recorded in April, up 63 on the previous month to 2238.

Used light PHEVs reached 1071 in April – an increase of 45 on March.

Heavy EVs stayed the same at 134.

Drive Electric chairman Mark Gilbert reckons a 400-500 EV increase per month may be insufficient to achieve the target set by the previous National government at 64,000 EVs on the road by 2021.

He’s among EV advocates calling on the present government to do more to encourage EV uptake, such as introducing incentives like “feebates”.