Clean car ‘policy imbalance’
The Motor Industry Association (MIA) is warning that importers are facing high costs and will struggle to hit the clean car standard (CCS) emissions targets because of a “policy imbalance”.
Aimee Wiley, chief executive officer, says the CCS is the “most urgent and pressing challenge” facing New Zealand’s light-vehicle sector.
“Despite the best efforts of importers, New Zealand is not on track to meet the 2025 carbon dioxide targets,” she adds.
“The issue is not vehicle supply. Manufacturers are delivering cleaner, lower-emission vehicles. The constraint is consumer demand. Simply put, not enough zero and low-emission vehicles are being purchased to materially shift fleet emissions.
“The economic and environmental consequences are mounting. Importers are spending tens of millions of dollars purchasing credits to remain compliant and avoid substantial penalties.
“Yet, since the repeal of the clean car discount [CCD] – the primary policy lever that drove consumer uptake – there has been little to no measurable emissions gain.
“The CCS was introduced as a supply-side mechanism, paired with the CCD as a demand-side policy. Together, these were intended to accelerate fleet decarbonisation. But with demand falling away, supply-side action alone is insufficient. The current policy imbalance is delivering high costs with limited benefit.”
Wiley continues that the industry faces further uncertainty from the potential removal of the weight adjustment factor for calculating CCS targets, which the MIA believes will significantly increase financial pressure on many importers.
Changes proposed in the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill (No 2) will enable this adjustment to be withdrawn at any point within the next five years, “compounding the risk profile facing the industry”.
“The Motor Industry Association is actively engaged with industry and government stakeholders and continues to work constructively to ensure the CCS remains credible, effective, and aligned with real-world market dynamics,” adds Wiley.
The amendment bill was introduced by Chris Bishop, Minister of Transport, on August 21. It is open for public submissions and the transport and infrastructure select committee is due to report back to parliament before the end of the year.
