Used car prices likely to rise up to 25% under Clean Car Standard
The motor industry predicts the price of used cars will rise 20 to 25 per cent under the Clean Car Standard.
It begins assigning emissions payments or credits to vehicles on January 1.
These are for importers for the first time, mirroring the “fee-bates” that began for consumers last April under the Clean Car Discount.
New car prices are expected to be pushed up, too.
Subaru says its will rise by 5 to 10 per cent in January, and sales volumes could crash 20 to 50 per cent.
The Motor Industry Association (MIA) said price pressures would persist for years because there were not enough EVS to go round, plus new car sellers had no choice but to forward order vehicles that will attract fees, especially when it comes to utes and vans, which lack electric options.
The industry said the system to collect the payments was not ready yet and showed just how much uncertainty the Government had foisted on it.
Though the standard targets importers, to encourage them to bring in cleaner vehicles, they would have to pass the new fees on to buyers, in a “double whammy” alongside the discount, David Vinsen of the used car industry body VIA said.
“Some vehicles will go down, like EVS will go down, but across the board, predictions are that [there will be] up to 25 per cent increases in prices across the board,” Vinsen said.
From January, vehicles with a high emissions rating will incur a fee — the higher the emission rating the greater the fee — and vice versa for credits below a certain level of emission.
New car buyers will not escape. Wal Dumper, the managing director of Subaru in New Zealand, said most of their prices would rise 5 to 10 per cent in January.
“We don’t know for sure because unfortunately the Government process has been set out but it doesn’t seem to be working properly.”
The industry and officials have been trying for weeks to get the feecredit payment system to work, but will not meet the January 1 deadline.
That forced Transport Minister Michael Wood to rush through a law change last week.
The Government moves since April were driving demand for cleaner cars, but price rises in Japan had soaked up consumer rebates so customers were not much better off, the industry said.
Figures from a major importer showed popular EVS and hybrids going up by mostly between $2700 and $5000 this year, with $11,000 the biggest rise.
The Ministry of Transport advised the Government last year the clean car moves would benefit households by reducing fuel costs and offering rebates.
Dumper said sales could halve because of supply. “Subaru in Japan has a 2027 plan to have its own assembly line for EVS, but I fronted up in Tokyo and said I need these cars for the next year and they went, ‘Well, no, no, we can’t do that’.”