New Zealand is about to become a dumping ground for dirty vehicles.  

That’s what the electric vehicle people are saying today about the Government’s urgent changes to the clean car standards for imported vehicles.  

Of course they’re unhappy. Because I reckon they are seeing and we are seeing the EV bubble about to burst.  

I’ll tell you why. I’ll also tell you why you’re not going to hear me ripping into the Government for doing what it’s doing.   

Reason 1: imported petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles are going to be cheaper, and we would all be complaining if the Government wasn’t doing anything about it.

Reason 2: penalising car importers for importing the types of vehicles that people actually want to buy makes no sense to me. And what I’m getting at there is I reckon most people still want to buy petrol or diesel vehicles or hybrids. In fact, with imported petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles likely to be cheaper because of this move by the Government, why would you even bother with an EV? 

That’s why the EV people are so antsy.

And reason 3: I’d be a complete hypocrite if I said otherwise, because I drive petrol cars. One of them is a Toyota Prado that’s been around the block a few times and is a real gas guzzler, and probably isn’t that great for the environment. Not to mention the Vespa 2-stroke nightmare.

I have never had any interest in having an EV. I can’t tell you exactly why, it’s not a protest of any sort. It’s not climate change denial. It’s none of that. And I think most of us are the same. If we can get our hands on a decent petrol, diesel or hybrid vehicle for a decent price, then we’ll do it.

So, as of the end of this week, the penalties car importers get stung with for bringing high-emitting vehicles into the country are going to be slashed by nearly 80%. Which will be music to the ears of the 86% of car importers that Transport Minister Chris Bishop says are facing penalties already.

How the scheme works, is car importers have to meet annual emissions targets.

And when they balance things up at the end of each year, if they’ve brought more dirty cars than clean cars into the country, then they get hit with a penalty, or a charge. Which, of course, gets passed on to customers.

At the other end of things, if they bring-in more clean cars and less dirty cars, they earn credits.

Which sounds great in theory. But, as it stands, most of the importers haven’t been meeting their targets and so they’re facing charges. So the Government is slashing the dirty vehicle charges by 80% to stop that happening.

But the electric vehicle people aren’t happy.

Kirsten Corson is the chair of Drive Electric —which is an advocacy group that wants more of us driving EVs— and she’s saying today that this move by the Government is “embarrassing”.

She says: "If you look at us compared to Australia, in Australia you're paying $100 as a penalty and now we've just slashed that to $15 in New Zealand. So we are going to become a dumping ground for high emission vehicles."

She says: "We keep our vehicles on our road for two decades. The average car is 15-years-old in New Zealand, so the decisions made today are going to impact our transport emissions for the next three decades."

But what do you make of this move by the Government?

Do you think the EV bubble is about to burst?