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Quarterly new vehicle registrations have plummeted since the introduction of the Clean Car Scheme “feebate” program on 1 April 2022.

Ute registrations have dropped 76% quarter on quarter. Brands that are heavily weighted towards larger, utility type vehicles such as LDV, SsangYong, Jeep and Isuzu have seen significant drops in numbers of vehicles registered between Q1 and Q2.

Brands with a good offering of smaller vehicles are faring better with Kia, Mitsubishi, Toyota, and Suzuki having a better quarter than average. A large determinate factor is how may units the manufacturers are able to land in the country. Forward order planning, shipping delays and factory allocations have also had an impact on the numbers of vehicles registered during the quarter.

Used import registrations are down significantly with only 22,000 units registered in Q2 2022, compared to the average for 2021. 

Truck registrations have remained relatively steady between 2021 and 2022 while Motorcycle registrations are down slightly, most likely due to interest rates and finance availability.

The Mitsubishi Outlander (2,560), Toyota Rav4 (1,987) and Toyota Hilux (1,987) make up the top selling vehicles of Q2 2022. Both the Outlander (547) and the Rav4 (486) are buoyed by rental registrations.

• SUV registrations have maintained their dominance as the preferred segment.
• Utes have historically made up around 22% of passenger/LCV registrations. The year so far in 2022 has utes at a little over 20% of all passenger and LCV registrations, even with a record high Q1 and a record low Q2. The true impact of the feebate scheme on the numbers of utes we buy will become more evident as the year progresses.
• Used vehicle registrations have slumped in much the same way as utes have, and we suspect this is due to similar reasons where a lot of high emitting units were pre-registered in Q1, and then sold in Q2. YTD in 2022 the registrations of used passenger and LCV are 8% higher on the first half of 2021 and 23% higher than 2020 (although 2020 had the first big COVID lockdown)

At 78.7 the Consumer Confidence Index is the lowest reading ever recorded, reflecting growing doom and gloom. A score of above 100 generally indicates a positive outlook. The average for NZ is a more optimistic outlook of 110.2.

Households have become increasingly concerned about their financial positions amid rising consumer prices across all sectors, including essential food and fuel, as well as rising mortgage rates. Further Omicron and winter sickness disruptions, combined with staff shortages have further impacted confidence.

All new household lending was down 33% in May. The slight softening of the CCCFA regulations in July will not be enough to stimulate any real growth given the financial pressures on everybody’s pocket.

After an energised start to the year EV registrations have dropped in Q2.

New EV registrations have decreased by nearly 1,200 vehicles between Q1 and Q2 of 2022.

A primary reason for the decrease is lack of availability of the Tesla Model 3. There were 1,298 Tesla Model 3 units registered in Q1 and then only 3 units registered in Q2. Registrations of the New Kia EV6 (213), Polestar2 (261), Hyundai Ioniq5 (180) and Hyundai Kona (287) have been deservedly strong in Q2. Plug-in electric vehicle registrations have improved in Q2 with 2,640 units registered versus 1,039 in Q1. The primary PHEV’s we see contributing to the Top10 biggest sellers in Q2 are the Outlander (953 of 2,560) and the Eclipse Cross (1,005 of 1,243). We have also seen petrol hybrid registrations rise from 2,340 in Q1 to 4,963 in Q2, as consumers move away from higher consumption vehicles with rising petrol costs.  

Tesla have been experiencing supply issues around the world and it seems this maybe filtering through to NZ. There are still semi-conductor shortages, and the costs of manufacturing and shipping are all increasing. Unsurprisingly the manufacturers are increasing prices of new EV’s with rises from Tesla, Kia and Hyundai recently. Long lead times for the supply of new vehicles is becoming the norm and EV’s probably have a longer wait time than most petrol cars. Despite this we are still seeing exciting new EV’s coming to the market with the Mercedes AMG EQS53, the Tesla Model Y and the BYD Atto3 all added to the Redbook stable over the last month or so. 

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