NZ Passenger Car EV Sales : 2025-26 Q1.

                                                               Dongfeng

With petrol prices going up, some car buyers suddenly go for EVs. Prices will fall again so a short term fossil fuel hike gets consumers in a tizz. If they did the maths, surely there isn't justification to do so costwise.

Passenger car EV registrations in New Zealand are up 114% YOY, compared to 12% for the total. EV market share has gone from 7.2% to 13.9%. I doubt that percentage will hold for the full year. 

BYD leads the way with 784 sales, gradually pulling away from Tesla. Dongfeng has recently arrived and is already third. 

It's interesting to note that Polestar, BMW, M-B, Lexus and Porsche have all taken substantial hits. Chinese brands are certainly making their mark.

With stock levels of EVs reduced with a buying splurge, stock levels will be affected. How long it takes for a Chinese car firm to get vehicles down here will determine if a dip in EV sales will result in April due to limited availability. 

Data Source: NZTA. 

Lynk & Co / Zeekr Deliveries : 2024-25 (Q1)

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co has many brands within its sphere of operation. Data is not its strong point but I've scraped together some data that seems kosher. We will look at two of the brands here.

First up, Lynk & Co. 2025 deliveries came to 350,000 units. up 23% in 2024. Then in Q1 2026 they increased 12% and exceeded 81,000.

The models are the 01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 08, and 09. They are all in the passenger car, crossover, SUV area ans surprisingly similar for such a large range of models. 

Then on to Zeekr which had 224,000 deliveries in 2025., up 1%. This year up to Q1, it has had 77,000, up 86%.

The models are the  001, X, 7X, Luxury sedan and 009. They too have passenger car, crossover, SUV options but also a luxury MPV. Again apart from the MPV, all rather similar but if they are selling well, it can't be bad. 

Data source: Geely. Models shown are the Lynk & Co 01 top. Below are rear seats of the Zeekr 009 MPV. Quite posh aren't they? 

SAIC Global Sales (China Production) : 2009-26 (Q1)

SAIC is a state owned car company with its headquarters in Shanghai. It was founded in 1955 and found much success in joint ventures with foreign car companies VW (since 1984) and GM (1988). 

It also eventually acquired MG Rover technology without the Rover name. They instead created their own similar sounding brand, Roewe (photo above). It still runs the SAIC Motor UK Technical Centre. 

So what is covered by SAIC Motor here? Roewe (commenced 2006), MG (2007) and Rising Auto (2020 - briefly as the R brand / photo below). Sales were 90,396 in 2009 and they rose substantially up to 230,020 in 2013. Then it was up and down but overall going up. 

The peak was 2023 at just under a million but then hit a speed bump the following year, down to 707,015. 2025 was another solid increase. 2026 is for Q1 and deliveries are already up 41% YOY.

MG would fill the value for money base brand, Roewe is considered upper mainstream and Rising Auto as a more premium electric subbrand of Roewe.