Consumers are getting the message about buying cleaner cars, but the Beehive is pushing too hard, industry suggests.

SALES of new vehicles incorporating some form of electrification in their powertrains lifted by 94 percent in 2021 – but that, and a record level drop in greenhouse gas emissions from the fleet in the past 12 months, is not enough to keep the new vehicle industry from being hit by Clean Car penalties.

This comes today from the Motor Industry Association, the representative body for new vehicle distributors, as an argument for why Government needs to be more lenient in respect to vehicle emissions targets it has set.

MIA chief executive David Crawford says 25,194 new vehicles powered by some form of electrification sold in New Zealand last year; against 12,997 in 2020.

That 94 percent increase reduced year-on-year average greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles by 4.7 percent - the largest annual reduction recorded by the MIA since it started collecting data in 2006.

In citing that distributors are working closely with their parent companies to transition as fast as possible to a more fuel-efficient fleet, Crawford nonetheless also concedes the pace of transition is “nowhere fast enough” to avoid penalties Government will enact from 2023 as part of the Clean Car Standard, whose first phase – the so-called ute tax – implements on April 1.

In provisioned comment, he says while the accelerating rate in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the new vehicle fleet is pleasing, it signals to the Government the severity of the targets and resulting penalties contained in the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill.

“For our sector to reach the proposed 2025 target, we needed to have reduced our average emissions by 10 percent in 2021, not 4.7 percent.”

New Zealand is already falling behind the rate needed to reach the Government’s targets, he suggested. “Failing to meet the targets means prices for vehicles will increase to offset the penalties faced by new vehicle importers”.

With the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill coming back to Government for its second and third readings, the MIA is urging Transport Minister Michael Wood to review the targets so they remain challenging but not crippling.