The $3,000 car tax

Stuff reports:

Kiwis will pay roughly a $3000 penalty for their favourite utes from 2022 under new government rules, the Automobile Association (AA) says.

The penalty under the Clean Car Discount package will apply to the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger – two of the top selling cars – and will come into effect in January 2022.

AA national policy manager Simon Douglas said the penalty would occur at the point vehicles were first registered in New Zealand, whether they were second-hand cars that had been imported or new cars.

The new penalty was questioned by Motor Trade Association (MTA) strategy manager Greig Epps, who said we could end up with “country folk who need larger vehicles paying penalties that fund discounts for city folk to use on a low emission run-about”.

Labour’s $3,000 car tax will hit many families hard.

And it won’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one iota. We have a cap and trade system and transport is part of that. Even if this policy does accelerate the uptake of electric cars, then those emissions quotas will be used in other sectors.

David Boot, owner of Christchurch’s EV City, said the rebate would not be the best thing for the EV industry in New Zealand long term.

The money would just end up in Japan or other countries where EVs were imported from.

People selling the cars in the offshore markets would know the New Zealand Government was paying a rebate and that combined with a big increase in demand caused by the rebate would push the price up, Boot said.

Importers were going to be put under pressure to buy as many EVs as possible and they would all be competing against each other.

“It will not be me making the extra money. It will be the Japanese.”

This is very possible. It’s like when they increased student allowances by $50 a week and surprise surprise rents in university cities went up by $50 a week.

So NZ families may end up paying $3,000 more for a car and that money will go to Japanese car makers!