Car import value surges 50%

New Zealand spent a record $6.1 billion on imported cars in the year to the end of March, with electric vehicles and hybrids accounting for more than a fifth of that spending, Stats NZ says.

Overall spending on imported cars surged by 50% following a year when imports had been depressed by the impact of the Covid pandemic, so will have included an element of ‘catch-up’.

Another chunk of the increase will have been accounted for by the rising cost of both new and second-hand vehicles, with prices pushed higher by supply chain shortages.

Vehicle Importers Association chief executive David Crawford said the price of manufacturing cars had risen, as had shipping costs.

Since EVs and hybrids generally cost more than other cars, their increased popularity would also have increased the overall value of imports, he said.

The value of imported EVs jumped by 309% to make up $543m of the total spend, Stats NZ reported. But they still accounted for fewer than 10% of imported cars by value. Overall, EVs and plug-in and other hybrids accounted for 21% of car imports by value in the year to March, Stats NZ said.

That is about double the proportion of sales that they accounted for 18 months prior.

Figures released by the Motor Industry Association show sales of imported cars have crashed following the passage of new legislation designed to accelerate the switch to greener vehicles, with only 9756 registrations in April, less than half March’s record figure of 21,044.

No utes made it into the ‘top three’ of models registered in April, with sales of light commercial vehicles plummeting 72%.

Trade statistics manager Alasdair Allen said the last two years had seen ‘‘a real step change’’ in the make-up of imports and he expected that trend would continue with the passage of the Clean Vehicles Act.

Imports of plug-in and other hybrid electric vehicles grew in the year to the end of March at a faster rate than imports overall, but at a slower rate than ‘pure’ EVs, Stats NZ said. The value of plug-in hybrids rose 141% to $79m, while spending on other imported hybrids rose 63% to $626m.

Despite that, there was still a big jump in the value of imported gas-guzzlers.

Imports of cars with petrol engines that were 3 litres or larger climbed 52% to a value of $636m.