New Zealand Electric Vehicle Market Rises from the Depths! (CHARTS)

New Zealand's electric vehicle sales are climbing again after a rough patch. A change in government a couple years back scrapped generous EV tax breaks and added a road charge, and sales cratered from 37.7% of the market in December 2023 down to just 2% by January 2024. Since March, plug-in vehicles have been nudging close to 30% of new car sales again, with battery electric sales up 231% and plug-in hybrid sales nearly doubled compared to a year ago.

Part of the shift comes down to fuel costs. Petrol in New Zealand runs roughly $7.80 US a gallon at current exchange rates, while electricity there (mostly from hydro power) costs about 39 to 50 cents (NZ) per kilowatt-hour. One analysis estimated that fully electrifying the country's cars could save New Zealand about $2.9 billion a year in fuel costs. Even so, EVs remain a small slice of the total vehicle fleet there, just over 3%, since New Zealanders tend to hold onto cars a long time and the country imports many used vehicles from Japan, where EV adoption has been slow.

None of this changes rebate programs or rules where you live, but it's a reminder that electricity costs versus gas costs are a real factor in whether an EV pencils out for a household. If you're weighing an EV purchase, comparing your local electricity rate to what you'd spend on gas is worth doing, since that gap can be the difference between years of savings and a wash.