NZ should be a 'fast follower' reducing car emissions, says Ford boss

Thursday, 11 November 2021

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Car manufacturers are pleading for more time to achieve proposed carbon emissions targets on imported vehicles, saying New Zealand lacks the clout to match what may be achieved in some other countries.

Ford New Zealand managing director Simon Rutherford told a select committee that New Zealand should aspire to be a “fast follower” rather than aiming to overtake Europe in transforming its vehicle industry.

The Government has proposed a Clean Car Standard that would phase-in a stepped reduction in the average emissions of most new and used imported passenger vehicles to 145 grams per kilometre travelled in 2023, dropping to 63.3g/km in 2027, with financial penalties if the targets aren’t met.

In June, the average emissions of imported cars was 173g/km.

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Transport Minister Michael Wood said the country had one of the “dirtiest” fleets in the world and it was no coincidence that it was also one of only three countries, alongside Russia and Australia, that did not set limits on the emissions of imported vehicles.

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Carbon emissions from the transport sector had increased by 90 per cent since 1990, making it New Zealand’s worst performing sector for rising emissions, he said.

Wood said the proposed new targets would put New Zealand somewhere “in the middle of the pack” by 2027, warning that if the country didn’t set ambitious targets it risked becoming a dumping ground.

The Motor Industry Association has said the emissions targets would put New Zealand ahead of Europe in cleaning its fleet by 2027, based on the European Union’s currently-agreed goals.

Rutherford said New Zealand was not in a position to leap-frog Europe and suggested the Government should seek to reach the EU’s current targets, two years after Europe.

“Our challenge is we are a little market, our volumes don’t mean much and we are really dependent on other parts of the business to come with us,” he said.

Ford New Zealand would “do what we can” and would begin selling a fully-electric van next year, Rutherford said.

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But he said Ford had made no commitment to bring its electric Lightning F-150 ute here when it launches overseas next year.

Ford spokesman Paul Altamore described the ute as a relatively-expensive “full-sized” vehicle.

Mazda New Zealand product manager Tim Nalden echoed many of those sentiments to MPs, describing the Clean Car Standard as “complex, overly punitive and unrealistic with its assumptions”.

New Zealand should be aiming to achieve targets “slightly after Europe, because of course they lead the world,” he said.

New Zealand was “tiny” on the global scale and timing was the key issue, he said.

New Zealand is only one of only three countries in the OECD not to already have controls on the carbon emissions of imported cars, Transport Minister Michael Wood says.

“We are trying to leap-frog and that is not going to happen, unfortunately.

“We are joined at the hip for 90 per cent of our vehicles with Australia. Until Australia moves in this direction, to get that certification for New Zealand and procure these vehicles – it is almost impossible.”

Hyundai New Zealand general manager Andy Sinclair also criticised what the Government was seeking to achieve in its proposed time frames.

“It still comes back to being a small country, a small market and not being able to dictate to a manufacturer,” he said.

“We will forever be linked with Australia just because of our geographical position in the world. Models made for New Zealand will always also be made for the Australian market. While Australia lags behind that makes it more difficult for us.”

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William Stewart, representing the Christchurch Electric Vehicle Owners Group, said the Clean Car Standard sent a message to manufacturers including Mazda, which he said were trying to get away with producing “inefficient, polluting vehicles”.

They would increasingly find their primary markets in Europe, the United States and Japan did not accept older technology vehicles from manufacturing plants in which they had sunk investments, he said.

Instead, they wanted to bring those vehicles to New Zealand, he said.

With lax emissions targets “we’d be the ‘scabs’ that get the stuff that no-one else wants”, he said when giving evidence to the committee.

That prompted an outburst from ACT Party MP Simon Court who said Stewart sounded like a “climate catastrophist” and “a conspiracy theorist”.

Wood said his message to car distributors was that New Zealanders wanted cleaner vehicles.

The push towards lower emissions would save consumers money through lower fuel costs, he said.

“If distributors and sellers don’t get with the programme they will have their lunch eaten by smaller players,” he said.

Wood appeared to leave the door open to a possible exemption from the standards for mobility vehicles designed to carry wheelchairs.

That was after the committee heard evidence there weren’t yet alternatives to fossil-fuelled models in that category because of the complexity of locating a space for batteries for those vehicles and the disadvantaged might suffer.

An exemption for mobility vehicles was “something we would want to carefully consider”, Wood said.

The Clean Car Standard would work in parallel with the Clean Car Discount ‘feebate’ scheme, which provides financial incentives for consumers to buy lower emission vehicles.