Buying an Efficient car in New Zealand
New Zealand being a country where no cars are produced relies heavily on the imports from Japan or Australia. This leads to options which are somewhat limited. On the flip side the used cars from Japan and Australia are cheaper to buy. We know as soon as a new car has left the showroom it depreciates in value. With the used car market in NZ the premium of a new car is not passed on to the consumers here.
Auckland is the largest and most populated city in New Zealand and due to recent congestion, the NZ Transport Authority has started taxing fuel by adding 10c/L to fuel costs. Even though this money is used to better the public transport, the fact of the matter remains that for now fuel gets costlier to average consumer. Hence it becomes important to the consumer to look at some fuel-efficient cars.
There are two major categories among imports in NZ for cars and that is Japanese and European. While European cars offer luxurious and very safety conscious vehicles, they tend to be a bit expensive for some to maintain. European cars used to have big engines and were not as cost-effective as Japanese cars, however this not the case anymore.
When starting your search on Trade Me for some idea of pricing one is presented with lots of filters such as Make, Model, Price, etc. As much important these are first and foremost one must familiarize themselves with the fuel types available on the market. The 5 main categories are:
Petrol
Diesel
Hybrid
Plug-in Hybrid
Electric
We all are familiar with Petrol and Diesel, however Hybrid, PHEV, Electric cars are a bit new to some.
Petrol vs Diesel
Diesel is cheaper and at one stage was only available in bigger vehicles due to the bigger size of the engine. In the last decade it has become common place in smaller vehicles due to the advancements in the engine. One thing to understand is how the fuel excise duty works in NZ for Petrol and Diesel. For every Liter of Petrol there is an excise duty of approximately 63 cents. Diesel is exempt from this as it is used for various purposes in commercially apart from road, however there is a road user charge of $68 for every 1000 km traveled. More details can be found on the Ministry of Transport website or you could use the calculator on their website for accurate calculations. What does this all mean? Let’s take an example, a Prius C SX (2017-19) has a fuel rating of 3.9 liters/100km. This means that for every 1000 km, the Prius uses 39 liters of fuel which based on the current cost of levy (63 cents) is around $25. Add another $20 to that for the difference in price for Petrol over Diesel. That means for a Diesel vehicle of same fuel efficiency a consumer is paying $23 extra per 1000 km. Diesel vehicles do offer more fuel efficiency but cost more to maintain. On the whole we can assume there is not a big advantage of Diesel over Petrol in cost and worst of all it is not a very clean fuel and harms our health and environment. Example, There was a big controversy over VW trying to fake Diesel emissions test in the US few years back and then trying to cover it up.
Generally speaking, we can assume there is not a big advantage of Diesel over Petrol in cost and worst of all it is not a very clean fuel and harms our health and environment
All in all we can assume there is not a big advantage of Diesel over Petrol in cost and worst of all it is not a very clean fuel and harms our health and environment
Electric
There is a slew of electric cars available in the world however NZ being a small market is limited to a few models. The most popular electric car in NZ is the Nissan Leaf. Other cars that are available are the BMW I,Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Niro, Hyundai Kona and last but not least the Tesla. If one is looking for a sub $15K car Nissan leaf is the only option for now. There is a lot of fear among consumers with the life expectancy of the batteries in these cars and rightly so as we are already aware of what phone batteries turn out to be after couple of years. Thus, one can say it is somewhat risky to buy used Electric vehicles. More detailed article on the Stuff website. The second biggest problem of buying an EV vehicle is the limited range, if the intended use is for city use EV offers good value but for long road trips, ICE or Hybrids seem more reliable.
With a replacement for a Nissan Leaf battery running at around $9000 fitted (it will vary depending on supplier), it is a more expensive potential problem than a reconditioned engine. - Stuff
New Zealand government does offer exemption from road charges for electric vehicles till end of 2021. The government is also trying its best to make sure charging stations are available all across the country for inter city travel.
The NZTA approved goal is to encourage the installation of a rapid charger every 75km along NZ's main State Highways so that even a low-range vehicle can travel inter-city. It has only taken four years, but this goal is nearly complete. -leadingthecharge
Hybrids
Most modern hybrids ( Prius ) are based on Atkinson cycle rather than the conventional Four Stroke engine. Atkinson cycle produces greater efficiency in engine but at the expense of lower-power per displacement. Modern Hybrids supplement this by an electric motor. As such the idea of a car with batteries is more efficient is not clearly the case in Hybrids, it is the Atkinson cycle in conjunction with the batteries that renders these efficiency.
Another big reason that cars like Prius give good fuel economy is the driving style implemented in the car. In the Eco Mode in a Prius there is barely any power to overtake on a highway. The throttle response is very poor as compared to a normal petrol car. After driving Prius for a few days any car with a four stroke engine feels like it supersonic jet. This is a price we pay for fuel economy the Prius is so renowned for. Luckily, it is quiet easy to turn the power mode off for better response or go into Power mode which gives a nice surprise of power.
The best thing however Prius and other Hybrid cars offer is showcasing to you the workings of the engine on your dashboard. When in Eco Mode, it shows you a bar between which you can keep the car acceleration for best economy. It also shows you a live Km/L display to let you change your driving style to keep it to a max. All of this and more is present on your dashboard to help you drive like a grandma on the roads to keep your petrol costs low. The biggest reason a car like Prius is doing so well in the market is due to it being a Toyota. The leader for reliability for the last few decades. There are Toyota vehicles doing 600,000 km. The resale value is also great in the market for a brand like Toyota.
This brings me to the reason why Hybrids are more popular than Electric, that is the reliability of the petrol engine. People still feel wary of the electric cars as they are somewhat new. The range of an electric car is also limited and then there is the issue with the battery life. Motor companies are aware of their customers demands in respect to cars being environment friendly and thus the low emissions are a key selling point for vehicles. More a car is electric, less are its emissions, however we do have to bear in mind batteries are not very Eco friendly themselves and do cause some concern in disposal.
PHEV
Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle is what PHEV stands for, like the name suggests it allows the hybrid car to be charged via plugging it in to an external source. This allows similar functionality as an electric vehicle(EV) for a certain range all the while have the petrol engine as a back up. Generally at this stage this EV only range is quiet short but might be enough for everyday commutes. A good example of this is the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, one of the best selling PHEV with global sales of 200,000 by April 2019 offering 48 km range on the batteries. Not only that it is a good size comfortable SUV for longer drives and hauling bigger stuff around.
Around town its pure electric range is now up to a claimed 50km and although that is probably closer to 35km or so in real world driving, it is still more than the average daily commute - Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV - Stuff Article
All in all I feel, Hybrid or PHEV is a good segue to the electric cars. As battery issues are addressed and cars like Teslas become cheaper there will be a bigger shift towards this cleaner energy. I do feel like Tesla deserves a lot of commendation for innovation in this technology, making the electric cars more viable and desirable for all of us and keeping the competition on their toes.
If you want to compare some of the most fuel efficient cars in NZ market, check out this Stuff Article. If I was to keep 2 vehicles, I would go for one Electric hatchback like the Nissan Leaf for everyday city use and a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV as it offers up to 50 km EV before it needs to use fuel. Ideally I would just own 2 x Tesla.
Sources
https://rightcar.govt.nz/find.html, https://www.driven.co.nz/video/driven-news/nz-s-most-fuel-efficient-petrol-cars-revealed-driven-news/, https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/107700662/the-most-and-least-fuelefficient-new-cars-in-new-zealand, https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/reviews-advice/editor%E2%80%99s-choice-best-fuel-efficient-cars/, https://www.aa.co.nz/cars/motoring-blog/choosing-an-economical-car/, https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/103524823/silly-car-question-29-is-a-used-electric-vehicle-a-risky-purchase, https://www.leadingthecharge.org.nz/charging-sites , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle
