\u201cRising fuel prices have clearly become a much more prominent part of the conversation,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n
On the Lexus side of the yard, Simpson said it had been the \u201cstrongest month yet\u201d for the brand\u2019s plug-in hybrid models.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers are increasingly drawn to the ability to complete short, everyday trips in full electric mode, which can dramatically reduce weekly fuel costs while still offering the flexibility of a hybrid system for longer journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Enticott, Bayswater Vehicle Group\u2019s branch manager of Nissan, BYD and Volkswagen, said he had seen an increase in EV sales and foot traffic since February 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been all day, every day,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But Enticott said the increased sales meant stock was running low nationwide.<\/p>\n
Before the Iranian conflict, the company could usually supply any vehicle that was needed, he said.<\/p>\n
Now, Enticott said customers could be forced to wait two to three months to receive their vehicles.<\/p>\n
Bayswater Hastings Hyundai, Isuzu and MG branch manager Paul Kerr said EV and hybrid sales had \u201cabsolutely\u201d increased since fuel prices soared.<\/p>\n
But he too was steadily running out of cars despite having a good range of EVs and hybrids available.<\/p>\n
Kerr said he believed the country would have a \u201cmassive disruption\u201d of new cars coming into the country because of shipping companies potentially shutting down shipments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll try to rationalise them and, us being the size that we are in New Zealand, we potentially could be on the receiving end of not getting cars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the cost at the pump … imagine how much that is on a transport ship \u2013 it would be astronomical the change in fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr said he was not giving industry insight, rather his personal belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRising fuel prices have clearly become a much more prominent part of the conversation,\u201d Simpson said. On the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,534,95,806,5195,138,124,537,4381,27645,14037,94796,94797,2678,1976,9476,5983,111,139,1536,69,384,12937,14182,42370,544,781,223,165,2846,61,6861,37458],"class_list":["post-343054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-amid","tag-and","tag-as","tag-be","tag-business","tag-could","tag-crisis","tag-customers","tag-dealers","tag-electric","tag-flock","tag-flocking","tag-fuel","tag-hawkes","tag-hybrid","tag-levels","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-prices","tag-shortage","tag-soaring","tag-some","tag-stock","tag-the","tag-their","tag-them","tag-to","tag-vehicles","tag-worried"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}