New Zealand motor vehicle registration statistics - 2007

Glossary of terms

< previous | index

Car	A vehicle designed primarily for the carrying of passengers.
Commercial	A vehicle designed primarily for the carriage of goods, such as vans, utilities and trucks.  This definition also includes buses and coaches in our registration statistics.
Ex-overseas	An ex-overseas vehicle is one which has been previously registered in another country before arrival in New Zealand (ex-overseas vehicles are also referred to as used imports).
Gross vehicle weight	Also known as gross vehicle mass – denotes the manufacturer's gross laden weight of a vehicle, in kilograms.
Licensing	The process of issuing a licence to a vehicle to allow it to be used on the road. Vehicles are licensed after they are registered – the vehicle owner pays a licensing fee, and a licence label is attached to the vehicle.
Miscellaneous	A miscellaneous vehicle, in registration statistics, is one that, by its design, is not of a commonly-defined vehicle type, eg, steam engine, crane.
New	For the purpose of registration statistics, the definition of ‘new’ also includes ex-overseas vehicles.
Postal districts	Where indicated, figures are tabulated by areas of New Zealand known as postal districts, as defined by the New Zealand Post Office. These districts have been retained to facilitate the historical trend analysis.
Registration	The process of adding a vehicle to the motor vehicle register: a vehicle, whether new or used, must first be registered before it can be licensed to be used on the road. Registration has been traditionally confused with licensing: registration is normally carried out only once in the lifetime of a vehicle, whereas licensing is renewed every six or 12 months.

Notes

1. The statistics in this book refer to vehicle registrations – not vehicle imports. Import statistics would generally differ from registration statistics because of the carry-over of stocks from one year to the next.
2. All the statistics in this book refer to calendar years, unless otherwise indicated. Where data is reported as at 30 June, this relates to the Land Transport New Zealand financial year from 1 July to 30 June.

< previous | index

Page created: 6 March 2008