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This report provides a comprehensive understanding of the vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) of households across New Zealand, focusing on their demographic and spatial characteristics. We use Stats NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure to link different datasets, including the Ministry of Transport’s Household Travel Survey and Motor Vehicle Register, Stats NZ’s administrative population census, NZTA’s Rightcar safety ratings, environmental ratings and others to gather the most granular information about households’ travel patterns at the household and suburb level.

We observed a positive correlation with having more children, being employed, being Māori and Pacific and having an electric vehicle. We used a regression model to control for demographic, economic, vehicle and spatial features, and the results were different from descriptive statistics. We identified that vehicle features are more closely related to VKT than other determinants because vehicle choice indicates the use and purpose of travel.

Keywords:

demographic features, EV uptake, fleet composition, IDI analysis, motor vehicle registration, vehicle kilometres travelled, VKT

Authors:

• Eilya Torshizian, Principal Economics Limited
• Eugene Isack, Principal Economics Limited
• Alina Fehling, Principal Economics Limited