While the market for BEVs in NZ is still anaemic this year, Ford has shot to the top of the table

James at EVDB sent out a news update for electric vehicle (EV) data, and there was a slight surprise in the top 15 list this month. Normally, there's a Tesla at the top, or a BYD, but for October, a fair few Ford Mustang Mach-Es were registered:

Source: NZTA - NZ new battery electric vehicle registrations by number of units.

This is due to "extremely competitive dealer-only pricing" which a quick check suggests is the case, with decent sized discounts being advertised.

Other than that though, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are slow to sell, with 2023 models still on dealer lots. It probably is a perception issue more than anything else as James suggests, with government policies - which about a year ago boosted the market substantially - creating a negative sentiment around BEVs, hurting their market share.

Economic uncertainty doesn't help either, ditto potentially higher insurance costs for BEVs.

Nevertheless, the one-eighty the Government pulled on clean cars has turned New Zealand into an outlier in the world, where global EV sales continue to grow fast.

(Chart from the International Energy Agency.)

Increased EV sales will encourage car makers to create new models, giving buyers more choice of tailpipe emission-less motoring. Buyers in other countries than New Zealand, that is, as our decarbonisation of transport plans seem to have taken a back seat. 

*Foster appeared on our Of Interest podcast in June. You can listen here: EVDB's James Foster on what's required for the next big move in electric vehicle uptake