New Zealanders\u2019 perceptions of Chinese vehicles<\/a> were changing.<\/p>\nCompetitive starting prices had helped Chinese electric vehicles enter the market quickly, he said, while improving quality had helped them maintain their position.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally we bought British cars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Chinese cars started coming in and they were a little bit of an entry level.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut over time Chinese manufactured vehicles have come into the country with all the technology [found] in established brands \u2013 safety features, advanced driving, big touch screens. They are now at that level of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fallowfield said the next challenges for electric vehicles in the future would be how many of them can survive in the market.<\/p>\n
![\"Hayden]()
Hayden Johnston, director and general manager of GVI Group. Photo \/ RNZ, Yiting Lin<\/p>\n
GVI Group, an Auckland-based importer of used Japanese vehicles, has specialised in electric vehicles since 2014.<\/p>\n
Hayden Johnston, the company\u2019s director and general manager, said New Zealand\u2019s vehicle market had changed significantly over the past 12 years.<\/p>\n
More distributors and dealers were now offering new electric vehicles, he said, while prices had fallen enough to make electric vehicles accessible to a much broader group of households.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were selling first- and second-generation Nissin Leafs,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the staple of what was available to us from Japan and the UK at that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were expensive, a used Nissan Leaf cost around $40,000 at that time, and we were selling to a very specific type of customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now we\u2019ve got uptake from the public; EVs are a lot more common and accepted. Almost every manufacturer has at least one EV option now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnston said customer interest in Chinese electric vehicles was also growing as more Chinese-made vehicles entered New Zealand with competitive pricing and increasingly strong product offerings.<\/p>\n
He said he believed it was only a matter of time before Chinese brands became dominant players in New Zealand\u2019s EV market.<\/p>\n
But as competition intensified, he said, not every brand would survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a place for all of them in the New Zealand market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could also see some of the legacy manufacturers that we are familiar with drop out of the market. New Zealand is not a huge market.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chinese]()
Chinese car manufacturer BYD is competing alongside more established producers such as Nissan. Photo \/ RNZ, Yiting Lin<\/p>\n
Crowded market<\/p>\n
According to the Motor Trade Association\u2019s latest New Zealand Vehicle Fleet and Industry report, one of the most significant changes in recent years has been the rapid growth in new EV imports from China, including both Chinese brands and vehicles made in China for overseas manufacturers.<\/p>\n
Japan was New Zealand\u2019s largest source of EV imports in 2020, but China overtook it in 2021.<\/p>\n
China accounted for 10% of New Zealand\u2019s EV imports in 2020.<\/p>\n
Its share rose to 58% in 2022 before easing to 42% in 2024.<\/p>\n
The trend reflects China\u2019s growing role in the global electric vehicle industry.<\/p>\n
The report said China now accounted for 70% of global EV production, with Chinese brands making up 80% of that output.<\/p>\n
China also accounted for 40% of global EV exports in 2024, and Chinese brands made up 70% of those exports.<\/p>\n
The rise in Chinese-made EV imports has brought a growing number of Chinese brands into New Zealand\u2019s increasingly crowded market, a trend the report said was likely to continue.<\/p>\n
BYD, a Chinese EV manufacturer that entered the New Zealand market in 2022, sold 152 vehicles in a single day in March.<\/p>\n
Warren Willmot, BYD\u2019s New Zealand general manager, said the surge was driven by fears that the Government might impose restrictions on vehicle use and that fuel supplies could run short because of conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
He said orders had since fallen considerably but remained well above the levels recorded before the conflict.<\/p>\n
![\"Established]()
Established EV car manufacturers are struggling to compete with cheaper Chinese brands. Photo \/ RNZ, Yiting Lin<\/p>\n
Willmot said BYD had faced supply constraints in recent months because of the global fuel crisis and shipping disruptions.<\/p>\n
A small number of customers had waited up to three months for their vehicles, he said, but more than 2700 vehicles were arriving in August, helping to ease the backlog.<\/p>\n
Willmot said that although New Zealand\u2019s vehicle market had become increasingly crowded, more Chinese manufacturers were still preparing to enter.<\/p>\n
He agreed that not every brand would ultimately survive, including some Chinese brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome Chinese brands think entering export markets will help them survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be the case. The same can also be said of some established Western and Japanese brands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNissan, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen are all under pressure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven this month, we have seen KGM, a South Korean brand, and LDV, a Chinese brand, pull out in the New Zealand market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willmot said BYD\u2019s founder and chairman, Wang Chuanfu, expected a period of global reconciliation in the automotive industry, with about 30% of the brands currently in the market likely to withdraw from the market within the next two years.<\/p>\n
Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor entered the New Zealand market in late 2025 with three fully electric models, led by the compact Box hatchback, which was priced from under $30,000.<\/p>\n
Simon Rutherford, chief executive of Auto Distribution Holdings, the company that introduced Dongfeng to New Zealand, said competitive pricing alone would not be enough to succeed.<\/p>\n
Brands also needed to offer strong overall value and a compelling ownership experience, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are well on our way to our first 1000-unit sales milestone and have already delivered more than 900 vehicles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rutherford said there was still room for new brands in New Zealand, but their survival would depend on whether they could achieve sufficient sales volume, build market share and operate sustainably alongside established global competitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be consolidation and changes across both retail and distribution channels deployed in the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome long-established brands will shrink, while others will grow rapidly. But that is a win for consumers, because so many companies are now competing for their business.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Motor Trade Association report noted that, in China, nearly all small electric cars were priced below the average small internal-combustion vehicle, including petrol and diesel models.<\/p>\n
Prices fell significantly across most vehicle segments between 2023 and 2024, driven in part by lower battery costs.<\/p>\n
The report said battery prices were expected to keep falling over the next few years because of an oversupply of lithium and continued expansion in battery manufacturing capacity.<\/p>\n
That could further reduce EV purchase prices in New Zealand, particularly for vehicles imported from China, and accelerate the electrification of the country\u2019s vehicle fleet.<\/p>\n
Fallowfield said price was a major factor in encouraging consumers to consider electric vehicles, but quality, servicing and after-sales support would also shape their decisions.<\/p>\n
He said Chinese manufacturers were likely to remain major players in New Zealand, although whether they would come to dominate the market would depend on which brands survived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they are established enough now that they will continue to grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably not at the same rate as they have over the past couple of years. That growth will start to slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will really depend on how other manufacturers respond to what is happening, both in New Zealand and overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This count excludes established global automakers that manufacture some electric vehicles in China, including BMW, Cupra, Honda, Kia,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,3944,4444,60002,14037,225,117,111,139,69,92494,6861,2963],"class_list":["post-569019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-car","tag-chinese","tag-duoya","tag-electric","tag-market","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reshaping","tag-vehicles","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569019","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=569019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}