Freebate

Polluting vehicles are still flooding into NZ

With one of the poorest standards for car emissions in the world, New Zealand receives the worst of the world’s car fleet - new and used. Our standards are years behind the likes of countries like the UK. And a world apart from very similar sized countries like Norway (half of their new cars in 2019 were electric).

The NZ government has proposed introducing a freebase system, which has been very successful in other countries, such as Sweden. It works as a carrot and stick. Pop a few grand onto the cost of a new high emission vehicle, such as a large SUV. And take a few grand of a low emission vehicle, such as an electric car.

But it’s an election year, so now we’re seeing politics overriding the need for action on climate change and local pollution. It’s sad to see, especially given how far we are already lagging behind the rest of the world in this important field.