NEW vehicle registration results for August are boosting hopes among suppliers of a sustained improvement, but the industry watchdog says with electric cars not sparking, ambition to meet important emissions targets are slipping away.

In speaking to last month’s count of 11739 new passenger and light commercial -so ute and van - registrations, the chief executive of the Motor Industry Association, which speaks for almost all new car importers, reminded CO2 targets are still important.

The Clean Car Standard requires vehicle importers to meet annual average CO2 emission targets. These are scheduled to become more stringent in 2026, when NZ aligns with Australia. 

The overall fleet is expected to be at 105g CO2 per kilometre by 2028; it is well short of that right now.

MIA CEO Aimee Wiley says reducing CO2 relies on buyers witching to vehicles that make little or no emission. That’s electrics.

The country was in with a chance between 2020 and 2023, when electric vehicles were popular. 

But now consumer interest in fully battery-dependent and plug-in hybrid vehicles is at low state, so conceivably the targets become impossible to achieve. 

She said the downward direction of EV and PHEV interest in recent months is “alarming”.

Battery electric vehicles totalled 385 registrations during August compared with 638 sales in July and 564

sales in August 2024. Back in boom period, those counts would have been quiet accruals for the most popular individual models.

Similarly plug-in hybrids recorded 408 sales in August, compared with 749 in July, but up from the 231 in

August last year. Again, that technology was far more popular during the boom period.

The sectors have been in poor state since the end of 2023, when the Government pulled rebates on sub-$80,000 vehicles. The technologies were hit again in April last year, when becoming subject to Road User Charges. 

Last year distributors were forced into fire-sales of stuck stock, and though prices have no reinstated to original recommended retails, few are holding vehicles ready for sale, preferring instead to take orders, which are then fulfilled by the factory.

The only battery-involved cars that achieve steady sales - and indeed, were the sole sector to see a climb in interest in 2023, when the entire car market was down - are those that contribute least to delivering positive CO2 reduction.

Sales of hybrids remained steady on 3091 last month, compared with 3434 in July and 2434 in August 2024. 

Overall market leader Toyota dominates the hybrid sector; a report today said 95 percent of its products are now hybrid.

The MIA says new cars sales overall in August are continuing a growth pattern that started  in June and continued into July. prior to then, the market had been in subdued state for a year.

The August figure is a heartening 17.5 percent gain on the 9986 sales for August 2024.

Wiley says with three consecutive months of improved sales lends reason to think that a corner has been turned.

“We saw a sharp increase in June – possibly off the back of the Investment Boost measure contained in the May budget – and numbers have remained steady through July and August, so that is an encouraging trend.”

Light passenger vehicles, including SUVs, accounted for 8090 registrations, compared with 7635 in July. The tally was a 19.6 percent increase on August 2024.

The Toyota RAV4 was the month’s top performer, with 1039 registrations, with the Ford Everest sports utility a long way second with 413 sales. The Mitsubishi ASX, now one of the oldest cars in the new sector, placed third with 397.

The light commercial sector accrued 3031 registrations, so 50 units down on July, and 194 units down on August of last year.

Long-time category leader the Ford Ranger restored to top position after losing it in July to perennial rival the Toyota Hilux. Ranger recording 978 registrations last month compared to the Hilux’s 745, followed by the Mitsubishi Triton with 262.