EVs popular as vehicle market weakens

EVs remained in demand during June even as the overall vehicle market weakened due to the rising cost of living, high fuel prices, continued vehicle supply constraints and a weakening New Zealand economy.

Registrations were generally down on June last year, leaving the Motor Industry Association wondering if it will remain subdued because of the impact of Clean Car taxes, especially for new commercial vehicles.

Overall, June 2022 registrations of 12,049 vehicles were down 20.4% (3086 units) on the same month in 2021, and down 3.1% (2595 units) on 2021 year-to-date (YTD), says the MIA which represents importers of new vehicles.

About 558 pure electric vehicles, 759 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and 1166 petrol hybrid vehicles sold in June, MIA says.

That included 549 light vehicle and nine heavy vehicle full battery electric vehicles (BEVs) registered last month.

Top selling BEV, PHEV and hybrid models were the Hyundai Kona (152 units) followed by the Polestar 2 (103 units) and the Kia EV6 (65 units).

PHEV registrations were steady with 759 units registered in June. Top selling models were the Mitsubishi Outlander (273 units), the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (205 units) and the MG HS (65 units).

About 1166 hybrids were registered in June, with the top selling models the Toyota RAV4 (227 units), Toyota Corolla (180 units) and Toyota Highlander (156 units).

Toyota led the overall market with an 18% market share (2209 units), followed by Mitsubishi with 17% (2006 units) and Kia in third with 12% market share (1408 units).

Mitsubishi retains the lead in market share YTD with 17% (13,768 units), followed by Toyota 16% share (12,911 units) and then Ford with 8% (6562 units).

In a continuing weak market for light commercial vehicles, Toyota dominated the commercial vehicle sector with 37% market share (924 units) followed by Ford with 12% (287 units) and Mitsubishi in third with 7% market share (179 units).

The Toyota Hilux took top spot for the month of June as the bestselling commercial model with 31% share (771 units) followed by the Ford Ranger with 9% share (225 units) and the Toyota Hiace in third place with 5% market share (122 units).

The Ford Ranger (19% share and 4895 units) leads the market share YTD, followed by the Toyota Hilux (19% share and 4786 units) and then the Mitsubishi Triton (17% share and 4461 units).

The small to medium segments accounted for 67% of June registrations and 57% share YTD.

The top spots were the SUV medium segment with 26% share followed by SUV compact vehicles with 22% then SUV large with 12% market share.