How do the Clean Car Standard and Clean Car Program affect car importing?

The Clean Car Standard is the second stage of the Government's Clean Car Programme and comes into effect on the 1st of January, 2023. 

(From 1st December 2022, all vehicles will need to be allocated to a Clean Car Standard account number, although no credits/penalties will apply until 1st January 2023)

‍

The New Zealand government is working towards lowering CO2 emission levels of vehicles shipped to New Zealand, whether that be a brand new vehicle or a used vehicle that's been imported by a dealer or you're moving home from overseas and wish to bring your car with you.

The Clean Car Standard operates parallel to the Clean Car Discount, so any light vehicle imported into New Zealand will be subject to the Clean Car Standard at the time of import and the Clean Car Discount at the time of first registration.

Under the Clean Car Standard;

· Vehicles that have high CO2 emission values will incur a charge.

· Vehicles that have low CO2 emission values will receive credits.

· Credits can only be used to offset charges or traded with anotherimporter (outside of the Clean Car Standard scheme)

· Credits and penalties relate only to the Clean Car Standard programand cannot be used/transferred to other emissions trading schemes.

· Under a Pay as You Go account, any charges must be paid for or off set with existing credits before vehicle registration.

‍

The fuel consumption import statement is now available. Those importing a vehicle canlist the CO2 value in the clean car estimate calculator along with the vehicle's tare weight that will help to understand whether your vehicle will incur a credit or a penalty.

‍

Clean car standard – Checking what penalties / credits mayapply:

Credit/Charge amounts can be estimated through the Fuel Saver website. Look for the Clean Car Estimate Calculator.

To estimate the credit/charge for a particular vehicle you will need the;

·        WLTP CO2 value

·        Tare weight

·        Vehicle type (Passenger/Commercial)

·        If the vehicle is New/Used

The WTLP CO2 value can be found on the Rightcar website (www.rightcar.co.nz)

Please note the Clean Car Estimate Calculator tool is an estimate only using values being supplied but not verified. These may differfrom the verified data.

Creating a Clean Car Standard CO2 Account:

You can create a Clean CarStandard CO2 account through the below link, then by clicking on "Set up a CO2 account in the CCS system" button on the right hand side –

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/clean-car-programme/clean-car-standard/

A Realme login is required to create a CO2 account, but they are not id verified accounts, so a separate Realme account can be created solely for the Clean Car Standard CO2 account if you wish.