NZ now has 260 new EVs on sale, but most Kiwis can’t afford one - report

Thursday, 28 May 2026

New Zealand’s EV market has never offered more choice, with 260 electric models now on sale locally. That's up from 152 just three years ago.

You can buy everything from a sub-$30,000 city hatchback to a six-figure luxury SUV or performance EV. But despite the flood of new models, most Kiwis still can’t afford one.

That’s the key finding from Drive Electric’s 2026 State of the Nation report, which says affordability – not range anxiety or model availability – is now the biggest barrier slowing EV adoption.

“The primary barriers to light vehicle electrification are no longer model availability or range,” the report states. “Increasingly, the challenges are affordability, policy certainty, charging infrastructure and the speed of fleet turnover.”

The report claims most New Zealand households shop below the $15,000 mark, where even used EVs remain largely out of reach.

At the time of publishing, there were 2037 EVs listed for sale on New Zealand’s leading online car marketplace, Trade Me. Of those, just 141 were priced below $15,000, with the vast majority being high-mileage Nissan Leafs.

At the new-car end of the market, however, the selection of EVs on offer is accelerating rapidly. Chinese brands led by BYD, alongside Tesla, now account for 46 per cent of New Zealand’s EV market.

Models like the BYD Atto 1 and Dongfeng Box have become the first new EVs available locally for under $30,000 before on-road costs, while competition in the $50,000-70,000 bracket has exploded to around 71 different models. The sub-$60,000 EV segment alone has grown to 17 vehicles.

Battery prices have fallen 89 per cent since 2010, and Bloomberg NEF predicts EVs will reach price parity with petrol cars globally between 2025 and 2029.

For buyers who can afford a new EV, the ownership case is becoming harder to ignore. Running costs remain lower than petrol-powered rivals, even after road user charges for EVs were introduced in April 2024.

Driving range has also improved dramatically. The median range of a new EV has jumped from 135km in 2014 to 455km in 2024.

But the biggest issue sits in the used market.

New Zealand has long relied on affordable used imports from Japan, with roughly half of all monthly vehicle imports sourced second-hand. The issue is Japan isn’t a major EV market.

In 2025, just 2519 used battery-electric vehicles were imported into New Zealand, accounting for only three per cent of all used passenger imports. Of those, 78 per cent were a single model: the Nissan Leaf.

“Japan is not a large BEV market and suitable used supply remains limited,” the report states.

Drive Electric says the bottleneck is being driven by limited supply, shipping costs, Clean Car Standard compliance costs, and weak household purchasing power.

Even though imported used EVs average just 6.4 years old – younger than the wider used fleet – prices remain too high for many buyers.

At the same time, New Zealand’s used-car fleet is ageing. Used vehicle imports fell 14 per cent in 2025, dropping from 103,925 to 89,188 units, while tighter supply pushed prices higher.

The report highlights the Toyota Prius as an example, with the proportion of imported Prius models aged 10 years or older jumping from 41 per cent in 2023 to 68 per cent by the end of 2025.

The average age of all imported vehicles also climbed from 9.5 years to 10.7 years.

The removal of the Clean Car Discount in January 2024 also hit EV uptake hard. EVs accounted for 20 per cent of new-car sales in 2023, but that figure halved to 10.6 per cent in 2024 after the rebate scheme ended.

Despite the growing number of EVs in dealerships, electric vehicles still account for just 138,626 of New Zealand’s 4.3 million light vehicles – only 3.3 per cent of the national fleet.

“Whilst battery prices have dropped significantly and price parity with ICE vehicles is nearing,” the report concludes, “many Kiwis are still unable to afford the upfront cost of an EV.”