Registration ‘vacuum’ risk

The chief executive of Autohub NZ is predicting a “vacuum in registrations” over the coming months after the number of new and used units registered in June soared for passenger and light commercial vehicles.

Frank Willett says there was a “mad rush” to register vehicles at the end of last month as industry and consumers took action before changes to the clean car discount (CCD) kicked in on July 1.

The government’s new settings for the feebates scheme have reduced the number of models eligible for rebates, increased fees for high-emitters, and lowered the maximum payout for new battery electric vehicles.
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Willett, pictured, says continued vehicle turnover is imperative to achieving a cleaner fleet but expects there will now be “a vacuum in registrations across the industry following such a busy month in June”.

“Talking to dealers that try to cater for everyone, the changes are also potentially putting prices of half their stock up and as a result consumers may delay trading in a dirty car for a not-so-dirty car, which defeats the aims of the legislation,” he adds.

“These latest changes have increased the net costs for what we would class as ‘dirty vehicles’ and taken a bit of a shine off some of the hybrids and small ICE vehicles that previously had a small penalty or broke even.

“The net effect may be that it will reduce the interest in the range of vehicles we’ve been bringing in and narrow the range of vehicles imported further.”

He also notes dealers who have purchased vehicles overseas and are waiting for those units to arrive will be among the first to feel the impact of the new CCD regime.

“Some of them will have ordered units based on the pre-July rebates and penalties but when those vehicles now arrive dealers will potentially owe more than previously expected and that will be a challenge.”

Willett says the surge to register vehicles at the end of June led to an apparent shortage of licence plates in some areas.

He heard of some dealers who were calling around businesses to find out which ones still had plates before visiting them to complete registrations ahead of the CCD shake-up.

“There was a mad rush in the last week of June by some dealers to register cars and quite a few outlets for registrations ran out of licence plates,” adds Willett.

“I went to register a couple of vehicles myself and there were three or four dealers in the queue.

“One dealer had 30 cars to register that were either going to suffer great increases in penalties payable, or the vehicles had been entitled to a rebate and after July 1 would fall into the zero-band or incur a slight penalty.

“It’s hard for agents to forecast how many licence plates will be needed when there is a change to a rule or legislation because you don’t know how the industry will react.”

A spokesman for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says it had no problem fulfilling orders for licence plates and as of July 4 had received no negative feedback.

To read more reaction, check out the latest edition of Autofile magazine.