Registrations of new one-tonne utes in New Zealand last month might have been down almost 900 vehicles on March numbers, but they were still up around 1600 on April 2022, according to Motor Industry Association (MIA) records.
A year ago April ute numbers stood at 509 registrations, the worst month since the 300 or so light commercials recorded in April 2020, when Covid bit deep and the Government had begun to shut down the country.
The 2083 ute regos in April were up 310% on April 2022. Last month was one of only two out of 20 since the cleaner cars programme began its journey in July 2021 where registrations were stronger than the same month the previous year. The other plus month was August 2022, where 2553 regos were up 88% on the 1360 logged in August 2021.
In the 20 months – July 2021-April 2023 – around 58,000 new utes have been registered with the MIA. The one-tonner remains the country’s most popular vehicle, despite disruptions over the same period to components and supply, and the introduction of penalties on tailpipe emissions. They might indeed be popular, but ute numbers are falling.
Month-on-month comparisons in ute regos July 2021-April 2023
July 21 – 3595
July 22 – 1915
–46%
Aug 21 – 1360
Aug 22 – 2553
+88%
Sept 21 – 3115
Sept 22 – 2791
–10%
Oct 21 – 3199
Oct 22 – 2636
–17%
Nov 21 –3403
Nov 22 – 3036
–10%
Dec 21 – 2931
Dec 22 – 2276
–22%
Jan 22 – 3477
Jan 23 – 2103
–39%
Feb 22 – 3625
Feb 23 – 2193
–39%
Mar 22 – 7439
Mar 23 – 2961
–60%
April 22 – 509
April 23 – 2083
+310%
MIA chief executive Aimee Wiley has said she expects registrations of light commercials to take a further hit once the revised Clean Car Discount (CCD) scheme kicks in on July 1.
Transport Minister Michael Woods dismissed an MIA request to impose emissions penalties on light commercials costing $85,000 and above. “The consequence is that light commercials are now disproportionately impacted by the July 1 CCD fee changes,” said Wiley.
Previously, vehicles with tailpipe emissions of 192gr/km of C02 attracted the most severe penalties. Now it’s 150g of CO2/km or more. From July 1, the CCD tax on some utes will be more than $6000.
• An island nation like New Zealand depends largely on shipping for much of its trade. The viscous bunker oil that fuels the engines in most large cargo and container ships can have up to 27,000 (twenty-seven thousand) times the polluting sulphuric content of land transport fuels. An American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report of a few years ago claimed C02 pollution in coastal California cities came more from its shipping lanes than its vehicle fleet.