Tesla Model 3 beaten into fourth spot in NZ in July – by Kona, Mini, and Leaf

The Tesla Model 3’s dominance of the new electric car market in New Zealand has come to an end – at least for one month – when it was relegated to fourth place for new EV sales in the month of July by the Hyundai Kona, the Nissan Leaf and the new electric Mini.

The margins were tight in a month that saw only 91 new electric car sales in New Zealand. The Model 3 had dominated the previous six months, with more than double the sales of its nearest rival, the Hyundai Kona.

But whether it was the lack of shipments, or the lack of buying interest, the Model 3 fell back into the pack. The Kona managed to take top spot with 16 sales, followed by the new Nissan Leaf and the newly released electric Mini hatch, both with 14 sales.

Tesla Model 3 came in next with 11, followed by the Jaguar I-Pace with nine sales for the month of July.

Total sales of pure electric cars have totalled 705 so far in 2020, and a long way down from the 1,867 posted for the full 2019 calendar year, when the introduction of the Model 3 had a big impact. The country’s tight Covid-19 lockdown forced the new vehicle market to come to a complete halt for much of March and part of April.

The New Zealand electric car market is far ahead of Australia, in sales of both new and second hand electric cars. Its total of new electric car sales now stands at 4,465, and its total new plug-in hybrid sales stands at 3,110 (dominated by the Mitsubishi Outlander with half of that total).

New Zealand also has a huge second hand EV market, with 11,616 sales to date, almost of all of these second hand Nissan Leafs (10,641) –  mostly imported from Japan.

That market was still going strong in July, with 223 sales of used pure electric Nissan Leaf vehicles, compared to the 91 for the new electric vehicle market. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern drives one of the 606 Hyundai Ioniq pure electric cars sold in that market.