A monster registrations run suggests CO2 penalty hasn’t curtailed Kiwi interest in American heavy metal; hence why remanufacturing plant is to double capacity.

SIGN-off on doubling the capacity of the facility supplying remanufactured full-sized predominantly V8 petrol American pick-ups to New Zealand comes as the primary brand it delivers is riding a huge wave of Kiwi support.

RAM, whose full-size trucks are imported from the US by the Ateco Group and converted to right-hand drive in Melbourne, Australia, with the help of Walkinshaw Automotive Group, is among the biggest targets the Clean Car legislation should be hitting – but clearly isn’t.

Year to date registrations are booming – to point it could this month top the tally for 2021, a record year.

RAM and the Chevrolet Silverado models WAG also remanufactures as brand-new models to parent factory-certified standard stand tall on Government’s CO2 emissions black list; they emit more exhaust nasties than almost all the one-tonne utilities that are also on the wrong side of the 192 grams per kilometre point where penalties hit.

The American fare has since Clean Car introduced in April automatically copped the biggest CO2 cost of $5175 – which the customer pays - and more costs are coming, this time to be felt by the distributor, when the next step Clean Car Standards arrives on January 1.

CCS might change buying habits, but at the moment Kiwis are just shrugging off the ute tax.

RAM sales are especially buoyant. Yet to date, the marque that has only just released the most powerful and – at $250,000 - the most expensive American traydeck here, the RAM TRX, has achieved 305 registrations.

That’s just four units short of the count it achieved for all of 2021. Most versions, if ordered today, would be four to six months from delivery. Buyers typically report they want the trucks for the heavy duty towing work they were designed to undertake.

While it will be unsurprising to learn that the month immediately before the Clean Car penalty imposed was RAM’s strongest ever, with 81 units registered within those four weeks, it has enjoyed decent months since, with 40 in July, 31 in August and 36 in September.

The Silverado is also tracking well, though it is a clear second to RAM. Yet its fans are also thumbing a Government’s emissions regulations. To date 182 Chevrolets have been registered. Last year 233 NZ-new examples hit the road. In a few weeks Chevrolet will celebrate its 5000th Silverado conversion.

Walkinshaw’s intent to increase output is part fuelled by it having taken up a contract to convert a third US-market big lugger, the Ford F1-50, and it also has eyes on the Toyota Tundra.

Chances of seeing those V8 petrol models here seem slim. Ford NZ has already said the F1-50 programme is purely for Australia at this point. Toyota NZ has indicated it could in theory take Tundra, but is loath to having committed to achieving the fleet averages proposed by Government. These will reduce annually and already require brands to slowly curtail availability of high CO2 vehicles, with ultimate aim of expunging them completely.

Walkinshaw’s facility is already massive. It now covers 16,025 square metres with the ‘light duty’ RAM 1500 converted on a separate line to heavy duty 2500 and 3500 diesel-powered models.

Not only has the facility’s size grown, but the workforce has swollen to 641 employees making RAM the biggest Australian automotive manufacturer.

Australia is, of course, the primary market for all those vehicles. It has become the largest RAM market outside of the United States.

Since the relationship began in 2013, Walkinshaw Automotive Group has converted a total of 18,019 utes for the Australian and New Zealand markets.