WELLINGTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's imports of reduced-emission motor vehicles rose sharply in the year to June 2026, narrowing the gap with internal combustion vehicle imports, official data showed on Monday.
Reduced-emission vehicles, including fully electric vehicles, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, increased 33 percent to 2.9 billion NZ dollars (1.7 billion U.S. dollars), while imports of internal combustion vehicles, powered by diesel or petrol, rose 16 percent to 3.1 billion NZ dollars, Stats NZ said in a statement.
"Reduced-emission motor vehicles accounted for 48 percent of the total value of all passenger vehicles imported in the year ended June 2026," Stats NZ international accounts spokesperson Shanna Dilworth was quoted as saying.
Total passenger vehicle imports reached 6.1 billion NZ dollars in the year to June 2026, up 23 percent from a year earlier, according to the statistics department.
The value gap between the two categories has narrowed over time, with internal combustion vehicle imports exceeding reduced-emission vehicles by 202 million NZ dollars in the year to June 2026, compared with a 4.5-billion-NZ-dollar gap in the year ending in June 2019, the department reported.
Hybrid electric vehicles remained dominant, rising 7.9 percent to nearly 1.7 billion NZ dollars and comprising nearly one-third of all passenger vehicle imports, Dilworth said.
Electric vehicle imports more than doubled, increasing 105 percent to 810 million NZ dollars, while plug-in hybrids climbed 76 percent to 413 million NZ dollars, statistics showed.
Japan was New Zealand's largest source of reduced-emission vehicles, accounting for 44 percent of imports, followed by China with 30 percent and South Korea with 8.6 percent, Stats NZ said, adding China supplied 73 percent of fully electric vehicles, while Japan led hybrid imports. ■
