MIA attack on Clean Car Standard 'surprising': Transport Minister

Friday, 17 September 2021

Transport Minister Michael Wood was surprised at the MIAs withdrawal of support for the Clean Car Standard.

Earlier today, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) took aim at the proposed Clean Car Standard, saying it “ignored well thought and considered advice from the industry.”

According to the Association, in introducing the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle) Amendment Bill the Government “has demonstrated an appalling lack of understanding of how to effectively reduce emissions from the light vehicle fleet and will instead impose unwarranted and significant costs onto consumers.”

Confused by all the acronyms surrounding Electric vehicles and hybrids? Here's a quick overview of the differences between HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs.

The big problem with the proposed CO2 emissions targets is that they are so steep that no current distributors aside from those like Tesla that only deal with battery-electric vehicles will be able to reach them in the time span required.

As it stands, the Standard will introduce fuel economy standards to reduce CO2 emissions from the national transport fleet. Currently, it includes setting a limit of 139 grams of carbon per kilometre travelled on the average emissions of new and used imported light vehicles in 2023. That would drop to 128g/km the following year and to 105g/km in 2025.

**READ MORE:

The Clean Car Standard aims to drastically reduce New Zealand CO2 emissions over the next decade or so.

* New car industry pulls support for Clean Car Standard

* Clean Car Standard should help lower EV prices from 2023

More plug-in hybrids and hybrids are coming into NZ, helping reduce emissions.

* Government introducing car import rules aimed at lowering emissions and fuel costs, considering incentive scheme for EVs

Following the MIA’s statement, Transport Minister Michael Wood contacted Stuff with a response, which is below in full.

“The Clean Car Import Standard will mean more climate-friendly cars are available, millions of tonnes of emissions will be prevented, and it’ll give families average lifetime fuel savings of nearly $7,000 per vehicle,” Wood said.

“I’m working with the MIA and the industry through our Clean Car Leadership Group and will continue to engage with them on these matters to increase the uptake of clean cars. I’m sure they will engage constructively through the select committee process as well, although my understanding is they’ve never supported the Standard’s targets, so it’s surprising they are saying they are withdrawing support.

Electric vehicles will be crucial for distributors to lower their fleet CO2 levels.

“It’s important to note that countries like the UK and Norway are banning the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles between 2025 and 2030, so we have to move quickly to stop us from becoming a dumping ground for the world’s dirtiest cars.

Wood went on to say that the 2025 target for New Zealand has already been met in some other jurisdictions like Japan and the EU, “so we know it’s achievable.”

“The Clean Car Import Standard applies to the fleet importers bring in annually, and it’s the average emissions of that fleet that’s measured. We have made adjustments to the Clean Car Import Standard to help the industry shift gears, and they’ll be given flexibility by allowing them to bank, borrow and transfer achievement of the annual targets.”

Banking, borrowing and transferring mean:

• Banking will allow suppliers to carry over any overachievement of their CO2 targets to offset the following three years.

• Borrowing allows suppliers to miss their targets for one year as long as they make it up the following year.

• Transferring allows suppliers to transfer overachievement of their CO2 target to one or more other suppliers operating within the same compliance regime.

“In terms of the longer-term targets (2026/7), we’ve provided them to give the industry five to six years so they have more time to undertake the changes necessary to the fleet mix to decarbonise our economy and meet our climate obligations,” Wood added.

“It’s not correct to say they can only be met by suppliers that exclusively sell EVs. It does however rely on suppliers have an increasing proportion of EVs, or, if they don’t, trading credits with those that do. We have already seen an increase in the range of low emissions vehicles being offered and promoted in New Zealand in the first few months of the Clean Car Discount and I expect this will continue.

“On the topic of WLTP, I have been given recent advice on this and will respond to the MIA shortly.

Wood finished by saying: “New Zealand already has one of the dirtiest fleets in the world - out of OECD countries it’s only NZ, Australia and Russia without an import standard. Lack of action has seen us get to this point, and we’re simply not prepared to see us become a worse dumping ground for dirty cars.”