Tesla Model 3 Wins Overall Silver Medal In New Zealand In September
In a land dominated by sheep, powered by hydro, and financed by farmers, you would expect the highest selling vehicles to be electric utes. Not yet! The highest selling vehicle in New Zealand in September was still the Ford Ranger, and the third best selling vehicle was the Mitsubishi Outlander. This is to be expected. But in an unexpected twist, the silver went to the Tesla Model 3! (Granted, this was a peak-delivery month for Tesla, representing far more than the quarterly average, which warps the results.)
In September, the podium looked like this — gold to the Ford Ranger (1498), silver to the Tesla Model 3 (1066), and bronze to Mitsubishi Outlander (963). That’s the first time a BEV has cracked the top 3. It was a strong month, the second highest in vehicle sales on record. EVs, PHEVs, and old-school hybrids made up 21% of total sales (3,505 units). In another blow to Toyota, more fully electric vehicles were registered than hybrid vehicles. The totals were: 1,512 BEVs, 537 PHEVs, and 1,456 plugless hybrids.
The mild hybrid field was dominated by Toyota. The top-selling models were the Toyota RAV4, with 466 units, the Toyota Corolla (247 units), and the Toyota Yaris Cross (117 units).
New Zealand’s aim to become the Norway of the Pacific is rapidly becoming a reality. Bonuses and incentives are in place for buyers who purchase electric vehicles and scrap their old ICE cars.
New Zealand also has a very active grey market, importing used Nissan Leafs from Japan and repurposing them for New Zealand roads. What’s more — this is being financed by the ICE buyers themselves. The feebate approach taxes higher-emitting internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and is supported by the New Zealand Motor Trade Association.
Since I last wrote about NZ a month ago, petrol has risen to $2.61 a litre.
Not long to go fulfill New Zealand’s electric dreams, methinks — it’ll just take the arrival of Rivian, the Ford F-150 Lightning, and/or Great Wall Motors to tip the numbers.
Source: Stuff
Shoutout to Ross for bring this information to CleanTechnica’s attention.
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