Despite the evangelical hype about battery-electric (BEV) cars saving the planet, registrations in New Zealand have slumped almost 65.0% in two years.
In short, new BEV passenger car regos have either gone through the roof or through the floor. NZ Transport Agency numbers tell the story.
In 2022 and 2023, BEV regos totalled 36,703 units – 15,677 for 13.5% of the overall market in 2022, and 21,026 for a 19.0% share in 2023.
In 2024 and 2025, they logged 13,240 regos – 6362 for a 7.3% share in 2024, and 6878 for 7.0% in 2025. After the first month of 2026 BEVs have a 6.4% slice.
The reason for the comparative free fall in numbers is of course obvious: BEVs quickly run out of gas on the sales charts without government handouts.
The upsurge in regos in 2022-2023 was fuelled by the then Labour government’s Clean Car Discount (CCD) scheme.
It and its coalition partners had decided that 50 per cent of light vehicle sales in New Zealand had to be electric by 2030 to meet global C02 emission targets.
This decision came five years after the Paris Agreement on climate change. The National government’s climate issues minister at the time, Paula Bennet, signed on behalf of New Zealand.
CCD was launched in July 2001, aimed at getting owners out of cars with smellier exhausts into those with either cleaner ones or none at all.
It was intended to be self-funding, where penalties on smellier vehicles would fund discounts on cleaner ones.
The government gave itself a $300 million loan and used it and CCD to splash future taxpayers’ cash on pretty much anything that passed the exhaust smell test.
BEV sales skyrocketed. Hallelujah! cried those who worship at the foot of the BEV altar. The skies above New Zealand look cleaner already, they chorused.
But CCD turned out to have been guesswork wrapped in guesswork inside more guesswork. The money government paid out in subsidies on cleaner cars exceeded by hundreds of millions of dollars the money collected from dirtier ones.
CCD left taxpayers with an IOU large enough to fund a moon landing.
The incoming National coalition quickly moved to shut down CCD from the beginning of 2024. Sales immediately nosedived.
What hasn’t slumped is registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), to some the next best thing to BEVs.
PHEVs offer the benefit of both worlds: battery-only power for a limited range (50-80km), along with petrol power when the battery is flat.
There is a downside: fuel consumption can soar under the weight of a lifeless 200-250kg battery pack.
NZTA numbers for January show regos of PHEVs continued the galloping growth the segment underwent in 2025.
The 619 light passenger PHEVs logged were up almost 119.0% on the 283 registered in January last year.
The boost follows the 36.2% hike in overall PHEV passenger numbers in 2025 – 4662 against 3421 recorded in 2024.
Include plug-in light commercial utes and vans in the mix and overall PHEV registrations swelled to 6885 in 2025, up almost 98.0% on the 3482 of 2024.
The NZTA and Motoring Industry Association (MIA) have long championed the EV market. The MIA’s latest note says the ‘4811 electrified vehicles recorded in January represented 40.8% of 11,806 new vehicle regos …’
But, it must be made clear, almost 70.0% (3312) of the 4811 were petrol-electric hybrids (HEVs). They’ve been around in one form or another for almost 30 years.