Govt commits to introducing 'Clean Car Import Standard' this year, giving importers until 2025 to slash the emissions profiles of the vehicles they bring into the country

This isn't quite the thing that everyone thinks it is. Terry B has written about this. It's now less of an issue given that there are new FBT rules for small companies now anyway which change what you can claim if you want a vehicle to be exempt. I assume Terry's own links are fine given he contributes here!

https://baucher.tax/is-that-ute-really-exempt-from-fbt/

How does it directly put money into the pockets of importers?

Without feebate, they import a car, pay $20,000 for it and on-sell it for $30,000 to a consumer, keeping $10k in profit.

With feebate, they import a car, pay $20,000, government gives them $2,000 feebate, they on-sell it for $28,000 to a consumer (as government requires the feebate be passed on) and they keep $10k in profit.

Either way the importer gets $10k in profit and the consumer gets a $2,000 subsidy in the feebate case.

"The 2025 target date does not allow time for model development"

Rubbish. I agree RCD. NZ is THE dumping ground for old dirty technology cars. And it will still be in 2025, because our emission standard is lagging behind the rest. But we are soooo good and clean here in NZ. Yeah right!

First thing I picked up too! ...not enough time to develop models. And BTW UK and others have ruled no new internal combustion engines from 2030. So go figure. Oh and they als reached carbon neutral new build housing standards for the same period. Could take a lesson there too.

Did you come up with that rubbish yourself Xingmo?

China's emissions are the largest in the world and getting bigger.

That's one theory Xing. I lean more to it being a growth initiative, climate regulation is going to require huge investment in infrastructure and that's good for the global economy including China.

EVs should have been paying RUCs since day one. Not to be paying them makes a lie of the NZTA lead statement on their website RUC page- "Anyone using New Zealand’s roads contributes towards their upkeep." If you can afford to buy a vehicle you can afford to pay the running costs. If you can't afford to pay the running costs you can't afford to own it and should never have bought it.

We pay 11c/kwh for night rate EV electricity. Cutting it to 5-9c would make next to no difference to anything. It's already so cheap (~$8 of electricity for 500km) that half of cheap is nearly irrelevant. The point above about the RUC holiday is much more substantial.

"There was no escaping the fact that the Suzuki Alto came up short for safety. Even when it was on sale, a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating was so common that a car receiving just four stars was enough to raise eyebrows. So that means it’s particularly disappointing that the Alto only managed to score three stars."

Pass.

Curiously, size doesn’t matter much, the Suzuki Swift is around 130 gm but so is a full size European saloon(Peugeot 508).
The government is apathetic on most climate issues, including vehicle emissions.

A typical small family that never helps out. i.e. transporting the kids to cricket or car pools to golf...

Those typical families that end up relying on those of us with larger cars to cart them and their kids around...

I hope you meant 99g/km or 9.9kg/100k.

I followed a logging truck, as one does, and it was putting out more smoke than a steam locomotive.
I suspect the state of our trucks is the reason the government is avoiding emissions controls.

I hope you enjoy waiting, cause you're gonna be doing it for decades.

This reminds me of the clowns that made you change your seatbelts on early Japanese imports in the 1990's. We don't make seatbelts let alone cars and think we can start calling the shots. The problem is more about maintenance and keeping the engine in good condition so it remains with low enough emissions. I guess this is where EV's will have an advantage but the batteries will be fun to recycle in a country that cannot even recycle its own plastic waste.

Once this comes in, the dealers will start selling in NZ engines speced the same as they do overseas. Small turbo petrol engines have pleanty of grunt while deliverying low emmissions when crusing.

Which is why it is spread across the range of vehicles a importer imports. some will be less , some will be more.

If it's CO2 and economy being targeted most manufacturers will push diesel ("Dirty D!") The EU is banning them because they give city folks lung cancer due to particulate emissions so there is plenty of production capacity available.

Coal rolling is coming to New Zealand!

My 2.5l V6 2007 Toyota does 9.8 l/100km on premium petrol, which is 229 g/km. If I save up for the next 11 years I might be able to afford the 2019 version, which emits 187g/km. No goer there. I don't see an affordable alternative to what I have on the market now, so looks like I'll be keeping it for another 15 years or so. Maybe if I save up I'll be able to afford a 12 year old EV.

Not many it appears
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093657_buying-a-new-car-is-greene….

I quite agree - bicycles are the obvious choice for 80% of journeys, electric if you need to travel more than 10-20km or hilly country or if you're elderly etc.

Electric vehicles are a distant second, with filthy ICE cars trailing far behind. Plenty of oil is produced in conflict zones too - the oil is often implicated in causing the conflict, in fact.

Whats powering your phone / laptop / device ??? .

Every study that I have read on full lifecycle emissions of electric vehicle vs ICE which doesn't have obvious holes or bias, shows electric car emissions are significantly lower in countries that are generating 30-50% of their electricity from non renewables. For NZ where we generate only 5-15% from non renewables, electric vehicles are so far in front it's not even funny.

But surely you can get a lot on each ship?

Whoops slight mistake in my specs there, 0-100 in 8.0 and 117g of CO₂

Now we have to decide which neighbourhood deserves to get cancer from lithium dumps and have lithium enhanching the flavour of their tap water.

Or we could, you know, just not do that.

At the moment, all suburban neighbourhoods suffer from ICE pollution.

That's a very good point. And it will incentivise poor people to keep their old dungers.
Having said that, I still agree with the policy.
Perhaps another reason to introduce a tax free income tax threshold.

"The major financial burden will fall on lower income people and families who will now have to pay more for their imported used cars."

Probably not, because NZ emission standard will be lagging so much behind the rest, we will always get the cars that cannot be sold elsewhere. Thus cheapest, unless importers are fleecing us.

How is making sure cars brought into the country use less fuel hurting the lower income people? They will be spending less on fuel .Unless they hold onto a older bigger car. Perhaps a scheme to spay them to scrap the big old gas guzzlers would be beneficial , to both goals ?

How do you fend off a Tyrannosaurus? Figured you'd have contemporary knowledge,,,,

Does it matter?

Its happening.

We are are consuming Finite resources to sustain our current lifestyles.

What next?

It's already happened?

We are burning more coal now in the 2000s compared to the 1800s when this was written...

Jevon's paradox - thanks so much for this. When the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority had their Warm Up New Zealand intervention, it was supposed that insulating homes would lead to poorer people having to spend less on heating their homes. Instead, they found that people took the "heat dividend" - i.e. they spend the same on power and took the extra heat, thank you very much.
The paradox implies the same thing could happen with more efficient vehicles - that for there to be a decrease in the CO2 emissions from improved energy efficiency, fuel prices will have to increase significantly to offset the increased travel which is expected to occur due to it becoming cheaper to travel. Raising the fuel price would therefore wipe out the savings to poorer people which the government is touting. If not, cars will be more expensive, people will just travel further, and CO2 emissions will stay the same.

Great work government!

A back-of-the-envelope calc circa 2015, suggested that if we reused the Tiwai power (diverted Manapouri) it would run the domestic car fleet.