New Zealand electric car sales may be in slump after Nissan Leaf pullout, Air New Zealand manages largest fleet with imported units

The rise of electric cars in New Zealand may not be progressing as hoped. Nissan Leaf, one of the bestselling electric cards around the world, will stop distribution in New Zealand.

This decision has not exactly come as a surprise, considering that Nissan had already decided to stop selling the cars in the country as early as late 2015, Green Car Reports confirmed. This has caused a chain of reaction among enthusiasts of the greener way to drive, as they are now reportedly without an option when it comes to the more affordable version of an electric car.

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The next cheapest come at somewhere around US$60,000 (approx. AU$78,399), which is US$20,000 (approx. AU$26,133) more than what the Nissan Leaf had cost. The decision may have been based on a commercial standpoint, and one that may not necessarily be revised as easily, given that the adoption rate is mostly for fleet services, rather than individual buyers.

This is not to say that New Zealand will no longer have any electric vehicles on its streets. Stuff.co.nz reported that Air New Zealand will be dedicating its fleet towards electric-driven vehicles.

What this means is that the airline will be having 36 all-electric BMW cars and 12 from SUVs from Mitsubishi that are plug-in hybrids. For its airports, it will be using 28 electric Renault vans. In sum, all of these electric cars will supposed to help save 65,000 litres of fuel every year, as it will also be the largest fleet of electric vehicles to hit New Zealand to date.

"We recognise the opportunity electric vehicles present both for New Zealand and our airline and we are making the most of the country's renewable electricity supply by transitioning our ground fleet off fossil fuels where we're able to,” said Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon to Stuff.co.

Whether or not a new option for providing New Zealand with electric cars will come up remains to be seen. But with efforts from big companies like Air New Zealand, there may be more ways to get electric cars on New Zealand’s roads.

New Zealand electric cars (Credit: YouTube/MyElectric VehicleNZ)