September issue out now

The Motor Trade Association (MTA) has outlined details of a scrappage scheme to get greener and safer cars onto our roads and cut the average age of the fleet. Its proposals include offering consumers up to $2,500 to get rid of their old vehicles with the cash having to be spent on buying more modern models.

The Motor Industry Association is “growing increasingly uncomfortable” with the government persisting with its elimination strategy and slow coronavirus vaccination programme, “which results in immediate lockdowns if one case gets into the community”.

Businesses across the used-car supply chain shouldn’t shy away from seeking financial assistance to help them cope with the effects of the latest Covid-19 outbreak, advises the Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (VIA).

And the MTA is calling on the government to find a way to help the industry bring in workers from overseas as many businesses battle a skills shortage exacerbated by the pandemic.

Autofile looks ahead to 2022 and the disruption the industry faces with the roll-out of the clean car policies. Will utes’ mass appeal falter? Will upfront costs remain a barrier for switching to electric cars? And how do the leaders of the country’s two best-selling marques view the future?

• The Giltrap Group has been appointed as Polestar’s official representative in New Zealand. Michael Giltrap, joint managing director, says: “This is a significant milestone.”

• Jim Gibbons, Colonial’s chairman, reports supply has grown to meet extra demand so far this year despite arrivals often being “late and lumpy, sometimes significantly so”.

• Tony Everett, of the MTA, explains why contracting out of the Consumer Guarantees Act when selling to business customers is harder than it sounds – and tribunal decisions support this assumption.

• Patrick Davey, owner of vehicle export agent Davey Japan, says the land of the rising sun has – to a point – learnt to live with Covid-19 despite “startling” numbers of new cases.

• New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley comes second overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Reid Harker scores a creditable fifth in class on his debut in the Spa endurance race.

• VIA’s Kit Wilkerson looks at the evidence and concludes EVs do result in lower GHG emissions than cars with internal combustion engines when their manufacture, power generation and eventual scrappage are compared.

• Plus: In-depth statistics for August, Covid-19 round-up, Nissan’s new GT-R Nismo and much more.

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