New car sales perk up overall, but EVs go backwards – despite heavy discounts

October's top-selling EV: the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT.

New vehicle sales totalled 12,571 in October, making it the second-strongest month of a tough 2024 and “only” 2.9% below the same month last year.

But despite heavy discounting – with some models slashed to half price – sales of new electric vehicles (EVs) went backwards last month, according to Motor Industry Association figures.

A total of 648 new light passenger battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were registered during October, a quarter less than September’s 868 – and less than a third of the 2035 new BEVs sold in October 2023 when the $7015 Clean Car Discount was still in effect, and $76 per 1000km Road User Charges (RUCs) still on the horizon.

The top-five-selling BEVs for October were the:

1: Ford Mustang Mach-E: 143

2. BYD Atto 3: 59

3 Tesla Model Y: 48

4. MG 4: 35

5. Volkswagen ID.5: 34

Sales of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) – which face a double whammy of a $38/1000km RUCs and petrol tax – continued to collapse, coming in at 345 in October, from 417 in September and the year-ago 2404. Mitsubishi continued to dominate the segment as its Eclipse Cross was easily the biggest seller with 124 vehicles shifted.

Non plug-in hybrids – which pay no RUCs – remained the strongest electric category, coming in at 3447 sales, an increase over both September (3300) and the 2886 registered in October 2023. Toyota’s RAV4 (1354 sales) once again owned the category, followed by the Toyota Corolla Cross (215) and the Ford Puma (183).

Petrol, diesel make comebacks

Petrol and diesel light passenger vehicles increased their market share from 41.7% in October 2023 to 54.3%.

Non-plug-in hybrids also increased their share, rising from the year-ago 25.7% to 28.7%.

Plug-in hybrids fell from the year-ago 9.3% to 3.6%.

And BEVs fell from their 20.3% share of the market in October 2023 to 6.8%.

Despite October being close to 2023 levels, year-to-date sales are still down by 14.7% compared to 2023 and 22.5% lower than 2022, putting 2024 in line to be the worst year for new car sales in a decade.

The stall in EV sales, high interest rates and the economic slowdown have hurt new car sales, leading to several car yards going into liquidation.

Earlier, Motor Industry Association head Aimee Wiley said the shifts in policy between governments had made ordering tricky for dealers, given manufacturing and logistics timeframes meant they had to decide how many vehicles to order six months or more in advance.

The elimination of the Clean Car Discount at the end of 2023 was followed by the introduction of Road User Charges for EVs in April, then an easing of penalties for bringing higher emission vehicles into the country as the Clean Car Standard for car importers was changed in July.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.