Vehicle emissions rule must look at the whole fleet

Media Release 18 April 2012

Vehicle emissions rule must look at the whole fleet

Motor Trade Association (MTA) says the government’s announcement yesterday on plans to update the rules setting emissions standards for vehicles coming into New Zealand is a good move but it must also consider an even bigger polluter – New Zealand’s current vehicle fleet.

Proposed changes to the 2007 Vehicle Exhaust Emission Rule will ensure that New Zealand continues to import new vehicles that are built to the highest emissions standards and would mirror those recently introduced in Australia for the introduction of the European standards – Euro 5 and Euro 6.

MTA spokesperson Ana Zandi says “We support government’s plans and think that it’s appropriate that our emissions standards keep pace with overseas industry developments. The used import industry only recently moved to a revised exhaust emissions standards in January this year, so it’s a good move to extend the standard beyond the end of 2012, and consider any other further changes in 2014.”

MTA says while there is a focus on the exhaust emissions standards applying to vehicle imports (both new and used) it is disappointing that government has not signalled any interest to look at the majority of the current fleet.

“If government are really concerned about reducing fleet emissions, there is a need to look at what we currently have on our roads as the real polluters of our atmosphere. Emissions entry standards only look at the 150,000 or so vehicles entering New Zealand each year (as new or used imports). We also need to consider the 2.4 million vehicles already on our roads. Some of these vehicles are of considerable age, are well into their life expectancy, and are also likely to stay in use for many years to come.”

There are clear advantages for all New Zealanders from in-service emissions testing. Not only would this improve overall air quality but there would be health benefits for many people. New Zealand would also use and thus need to import less fuel, and there would be cost savings for individual vehicle owners who would potentially use less fuel.

“In service testing of vehicle emissions is a widely accepted practice in many other countries. If government is serious about reducing vehicle emissions then we need to make this a priority and periodically test all vehicles in our fleet,” says Zandi.

ENDS

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