EV Data: Sources and Definitions

Definitions

• EV – Anything with a plug (BEV and PHEV) – as per Waka Kotahi’s definition.
• BEV – Battery Electric Vehicle (full electric, no combustion engine).
• PHEV – Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle (small battery that can be charged externally, as well as combustion engine).
• Hybrid – Plugless (the MVR databases have various classifications for this).
• Light vehicle – A vehicle under 3,500 kg and a type of PASSENGER CAR/VAN or GOODS VAN/TRUCK/UTILITY. Includes cars (sedans, SUVs, hatchbacks, etc), small vans (like a Toyota Hiace), and Utes (Ford Ranger, etc).
• New vs Used Imports – All vehicles registered in NZ are imported built up. Some have been pre-owned (typically in Japan or the UK).

Data Sources

The NZ Motor Vehicle Reg database is complex and the data quality is poor.

Waka Kotahi Open Data (main link)

• Fleet: CSV downloads of each model year.
• Registrations: Dashboard of monthly data from 2020 onwards.
• Fleet: Motor Vehicle Register and API
• Monthly Spreadsheets – Additions to the fleet.
• Monthly Spreadsheets – Fleet Status

Ministry of Transport

• Monthly Fleet statistics
• Monthly Registration statistics
• Weekly EV report

I take this data in various forms and combine it to produce graphs and tables. Some of the data is not great (e.g. all BMW i3, IX3, IX, etc. are all registered as BMW I), so there’s a bit of work to make things understandable.

Fleet vs Registrations

• Registrations are new (or used import) vehicles coming into the register.
  This gives an understanding of the increase of EVs down to make and model detail.
• The NZ fleet is much more difficult to measure. Once in the register, the vehicle may have a status of licensed, unlicensed, or on an exemption.