New Zealand has recently announced that it will be revising Clean Car Importer Standard (formerly called the Clean Car Standard) “to provide the vehicle import market with certainty and ease the cost of living pressures on Kiwis the next time they need to purchase a vehicle”.
“The Government supports the Clean Car Importer Standard to ensure that New Zealand has an affordable mix of clean vehicles,” Transport Minister Simeon Brown said in a press release.
“Following a comprehensive review into the Standard we will be making key changes to ensure the Standard strikes the right balance between reducing transport emissions while ensuring that New Zealand’s have access to affordable vehicles,” he added.
New Emissions Targets
For 2025, the CO2 target increased to 223g/km from 155g/km while for 2027, the target goes up to 103g/km from the initial target of 87.2g/km. Furthermore, New Zealand will adopt Australia’s targets for 144g/km in 2028 and 131g/km in 2029.
For passenger vehicle CO2 targets, they remain at 112.6g/km in 2025 but for 2026 and 2027, they’ve been raised to 108g/km and 103g/km respectively. In 2028 and 2029, New Zealand will also follow Australia’s CO2 targets of 76g/km and 65g/km respectively.
Penalties were set at $45 per gram of carbon dioxide (half that for used cars) multiplied by the sum of emissions above the target from every vehicle sold.
Apart from realigning CO2 targets, New Zealand will also pass legislation to make further changes to provide more flexibility in using the Standard’s emission credits and charges to support the achievement of the targets.
Furthermore, disability vehicles will be exempt from the Standard. This change will take effect as soon as possible after the new regulations are made.
“These changes will ensure the Standard emissions targets are stringent enough for New Zealand to receive a supply of clean vehicles, but not too stringent that importers cannot meet the targets, leading to higher vehicle prices,” Minister Brown said.
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