More than 40% of light vehicles in NZ are at least 15 years old

Posted 11 months ago by Kirsty Craig Less than a minute to read

We’ve just updated the 'Number of motor vehicles' and 'Average age of motor vehicles' factsheets in our Air Quality / Transport domains. Here are the key findings:

Number of motor vehicles

    • The vehicle fleet continues to grow. In 2021, there were 4.5 million vehicles, up from 2.5 million vehicles in 2001.
    • The number of light motor vehicles per capita remains very high compared with other countries, at 807.8 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2021.
    • Electric vehicles (EVs) represented less than 1.0% of the light vehicle fleet in 2021 (37,000 vehicles), but EV registrations have made up a growing proportion of light vehicle registrations since the introduction of the Clean Car Discount on 1 July 2021.

Average age of motor vehicles

    • In 2021, 41.5% of light vehicles were at least 15 years old. This proportion keeps rising as vehicles enter the fleet at older ages and are kept in service for longer.
    • The New Zealand vehicle fleet is consistently around 2–4 years older on average than similar countries.
    • Trucks and motorcycles are the oldest vehicle types, being 18.0 and 17.9 years old on average.

Read the full factsheets here.