Last month was the biggest on record for new vehicle sales as buyers raced to beat the Government’s clean car policy changes.

Figures released by the Motor Industry Association (MIA) today show a record 23,560 registrations in June, 2556 units higher than the previous biggest month which was March 2022 (21,004 registrations).

June’s new vehicle sales were also 95.5 per cent higher than that of June 2022.

There were 8240 new electric vehicle sales in June, accounting for almost half (47.7 per cent) of the record 17,299 passenger vehicle registrations for the month.

Passenger registrations (17,299) were 97.5 per cent higher than the monthly average year to date and 80.9 per cent higher than June’s total last year.

“What these record months have in common is clean car policy change,” MIA chief executive Aimee Wiley said.

“In March 2022, people rushed to register vehicles to avoid the introduction of Clean Car Discount fees and we can see this repeated in June 2023, to avoid increasing fees or reducing rebates from 1 July onwards.”

The Government announced tweaks to its Clean Car Discount policy in May, which came into effect on July 1.

The changes mean the maximum rebate for new “clean” vehicles will decrease by about $1600. When first introduced, the clean car rebate took as much as $8625 off the price of a new clean vehicle.

On the flipside, the maximum fee for vehicles that emit 150g of carbon dioxide per kilometre increased by about $1700.

The scheme works by adding a fee onto the purchase of polluting cars to fund the purchase of “clean” cars, either low-emission conventional vehicles, hybrids, or full electric EVs.

Sales of electric vehicles have been surging since the Clean Car Discount came in.

In May, StatsNZ said imports of electric vehicles more than doubled in value during the 12 months to March 2023, increasing 127 per cent to $1.23 billion.

Then-Transport Minister Michael Wood, announcing changes to the Clean Car Discount policy back in May, said more than 100,000 rebates had been granted under the scheme, helping drive a level of EV uptake not previously expected until 2027.

“The scheme is successfully exceeding industry and Government projections, with 20 per cent of all new passenger car sales being electric in 2022,” he said at the time.

The MIA’s figures show of the 8240 new electric vehicle sales in June, 2,643 were for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), or otherwise known as fully electric, 1,318 for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and 4,279 for hybrid vehicles (HEVs).

There were also 6,261 commercial vehicle registrations in June 2023, the second biggest month ever, and 76.2 per cent higher than the average monthly registrations year to date (3,553 average units per month).

The top three passenger models for the month were the Toyota RAV 4, Tesla Model Y, and MG ZS.