Annual Motor Vehicle Fleet Statistics

Annual Motor Vehicle Fleet Statistics (2021)

About this tool

This open data tool includes:

An interactive dashboard for exploring available data in the Annual Motor Vehicle Fleet Statistics (2021). The dashboard enables the user to choose a data category and drill down to a particular dataset. The specific datasets can be explored and downloaded via an interactive visualisation or downloaded as machine readable .csv.
The option to download the complete open data, which includes many other summaries than those presented in the dashboard of the app.
A summary of key insights from the data, grouped in themes according to the Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) transport targets for 2035.

Enquiries

Enquiries relating to this data may be directed to the Ministry of Transport, PO Box 3175, Wellington, or by email on info@transport.govt.nz

For more information about vehicles and travel check out https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/fleet-statistics/

Disclaimer

All reasonable endeavours have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this report. However, the information is provided without warranties of any kind including accuracy, completeness, timeliness or fitness for any particular purpose. The Ministry of Transport excludes liability for any loss, damage or expense, direct or indirect, and however caused, whether through negligence or otherwise, resulting from any person or organisation’s use of, or reliance on, the information provided in this report. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (BY) licence, this document, and the information contained within it, can be copied, distributed, adapted and otherwise used provided that:

The Ministry of Transport is attributed as the source of the material.
The material is not misrepresented or distorted through selective use of the material.
Images contained in the material are not copied.

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The download of the complete open data, which includes many other summaries than those presented in this dashboard, can be accessed through the download button below.

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To reach New Zealand’s target of net-zero long-lived emissions by 2050, the transport sector is expected to deliver four targets by 2035 - as described in New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP).

This section presents trends and insights in motor vehicle fleet and travel for the period 2000-2021, which are grouped in themes according to the ERP transport targets for 2035. For more information please read our Insights brief.

Overall fleet count

Related ERP target: reduce total kilometres travelled by the light fleet by 20% by 2035 through improved urban form and providing better transport options, particularly in our largest cities (ERP target 1 for transport).

New Zealand’s motor vehicle fleet has been increasing over the last 10 years with over 4.5 million vehicles in 2021 - the highest fleet size to date.
The 2021 motor vehicle fleet equates to 889 vehicles per 1,000 people - one of the highest rates of vehicle ownership in the world.

Overall fleet travel

Compared to the number of vehicles (which has increased consistently in the last decade), total kilometres travelled has flattened out since 2018. Note that 2020 was an anomalous year for transport due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The vehicle kilometres travelled in 2021, of more than 47 billion kilometres, has recovered close to the pre-pandemic value.
Travel per vehicle has been decreasing since 2001, with a sharp decrease in 2020 consistent with the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a slight increase in 2021. This decreasing trend of kilometres travelled per vehicle does not imply that people are driving less. Instead, it could be explained by an increase in number of vehicles per household which is consistent with New Zealand’s high levels of vehicle ownership.

Fleet composition

About 91% of motor vehicles in the 2021 fleet are light passenger and commercial vehicles (e.g., cars, vans, utes, SUVs, buses and camper vans up to 3500 kg). This percentage of light vehicles has been relatively steady since 2000.

Light fleet count

Although LCVs represent a smaller proportion of the fleet compared to LPVs, their number has increased by 70% in the past decade. By contrast, LPVs have only increased by 27% in the same time period. This reflects a trend towards larger and heavier vehicles equipped with larger engines that have been the typical option for commercial use.

Fleet fuel mix

Related ERP target: increase zero-emissions vehicles to 30% of the light fleet by 2035 (ERP target 2 for transport) and reduce the emissions intensity of transport fuel by 10% by 2035 (ERP target 4 for transport).

The light vehicle fleet continues to be dominated by petrol.
Less than 1% of light vehicles are battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
Diesel light vehicles are steadily increasing in number and at a faster rate than petrol vehicles. This is consistent with the faster increase of LCVs in the fleet which are diesel-fuelled.
BEV + PHEV are a small minority but their uptake has grown fast from 2020 to 2021. Due to the introduction of the Clean Car Standard (which regulates CO_2 emissions of vehicles entering New Zealand) and the Clean Car Discount (which encourages buyer demand for low-emission vehicles), the uptake of zero and low-emission vehicles is expected to continue accelerating.

Most light passenger vehicles are fuelled by petrol.
The share of diesel vehicles (dieselisation) in the light commercial fleet, buses, and trucks, has increased over time. Dieselisation has been significant for LCVs with the fuel ratio flipping towards diesel vehicle majority since 2005.

GHG emissions

Related ERP target: reduce the emissions intensity of transport fuel by 10% by 2035 (ERP target 4 for transport).

In the past decade, reported CO₂ emissions of new petrol vehicles entering the fleet have decreased by around 21%. The main reason for this is the increase in the number of petrol hybrid and plug-in petrol hybrid vehicles in recent years.
Reported CO₂ emissions of new diesel vehicles entering the fleet have decreased by around 5%.
Average emissions of diesel vehicles are higher than petrol vehicles. This can be explained by the increasing popularity of diesel-fuelled LCVs (i.e. utilities and vans), which tend to be larger and heavier vehicles equipped with larger engines, and the low number of hybrid diesel vehicles entering the fleet.
Average reported CO₂ emissions of vehicles entering the light fleet has decreased over time, but further reduction is required to meet the Clean Car Standard requirements.

Road freight

Related ERP target: reduce emissions from freight transport by 35% by 2035 (ERP target 3 for transport).

Tonne-km of road freight are increasing.
Average age of used trucks in the fleet have been increasing, whereas average age of new trucks in the fleet has remained around 15 years old.
The proportion of new trucks entering the fleet has been decreasing for the past 10 years.
Trucks are predominantly diesel-fuelled. In 2021, 99.6% of trucks entering the fleet were diesel-fuelled and this value has been steady since the year 2000.

Glossary

LCV: Light commercial vehicle.

LPV: Light passenger vehicle.

VKT: Vehicle kilometres travelled.

Release notes

Version 1.1: Update of fleet composition by region and distance travelled by region. Released in June 2023.

Version 1.0: Released in December 2022.

This interactive open data tool shows the annual statistics of New Zealand’s historical motor vehicle fleet for the period 2000-2021. The data can be explored and downloaded in machine readable format. A summary of key insights from the data is also provided.

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