Environment / Cars and fuel

Are we switching to electric cars?

26%of new cars and vans registered November 2025 to October 2026 were electric or plug-in hybrids (12% the year before)

37%of new cars were conventional hybrids, which can't plug in

4.2%of all 3.7 million cars and vans on the register plug in, October 2026

New cars by fuel

Share of new cars and vans first registered in New Zealand over each 12 months.

Used imports

By district

Electric and plug-in hybrid share of cars and vans

Highest and lowest districts with at least 5,000 cars, by the owner's address on the register.

About these numbers

Registrations count cars and vans by the month they were first registered in New Zealand, among vehicles still on NZTA's Motor Vehicle Register. Vehicles since scrapped or exported aren't counted, so older months are slightly understated.

Electric includes battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles; plug-in hybrids have a battery that charges from the grid and a petrol or diesel engine; hybrids charge only from their own engine.

The Clean Car Discount, a rebate on low-emission vehicles, ended on 31 December 2023. Electricity is 95.3% renewable (electricity).

Source: NZTA Waka Kotahi Motor Vehicle Register, open data (to October 2026); Stats NZ population estimates.