More than double the number of electric vehicles are driving around New Zealand highways compared to a couple of years ago as registrations soar at a faster pace than most countries around the world.
Kiwis have smashed it out of the park when it comes to purchasing EVs with New Zealand coming third in the world for the highest uptake of the vehicles, new research shows.
The study, conducted by Electric Vehicle experts at DriveElectric, looked at EV sales year-on-year to determine the countries that have seen the biggest increase in electric vehicle sales.
In first place with a 300 percent annual increase from 2021 to 2022 was India, followed by Brazil at 193 percent.
New Zealand was third at 179 percent increase from 6800 sales in 2021 to 19,000 sales in 2022.
The popularity of the Clean Car Discount scheme could be a driving factor for the increase. The scheme gives rebates for zero-emission and low-emission vehicles while taxing high-emission vehicles.
In fact, in 2022 alone, 20 percent of all new passenger cars were electric vehicles, the Government said.
But when it comes to the list of the world's greenest countries, New Zealand didn’t even make the top 10, the study found.
Sweden took first place as the country has several low carbon emissions and strong renewable energy programs, which are contributing towards the country’s goal of becoming fossil fuel-free and running solely on 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. It was followed by Finland and Germany.
