Source: New Zealand Ministry of Transport
The Euro 6/VI evaluation study demonstrated that Europe’s shift to
Euro 6d/VI over the last decade caused dramatic improvements in air quality, with reductions of:
- nitrogen oxides (65 percent for petrol cars, 91 percent for light diesel vehicles, and 72 percent for heavy vehicles)
- exhaust particles (86 percent for petrol cars, 91 percent for light diesel vehicles, and 28 percent for heavy trucks)
- carbon monoxide (83 percent for petrol cars, 41 percent for light diesel vehicles, 85 percent for heavy trucks)
- other pollutants.
These reductions in Europe relied on a number of improvements to the Euro 6 and VI standards being incorporated as well, which Aotearoa will also seek to include.
Requiring vehicle imports to meet a stronger emissions standard is a key tool to reducing the health impacts from domestic motor vehicle pollution. If adopted, the proposed Amendment Rule change is expected to save over $6 billion in social costs out to 2050, against costs of less than
$0.2 billion.
Voluntary uptake of Euro 6/VI is low, especially for diesel vehicles, and is not expected to change materially without a legislative requirement.
Therefore, the Government is proposing to phase in new requirements for the new emissions standard over the next five years for the following groups of vehicles (when they are imported into the country): light vehicles, heavy vehicles, motorcycles/mopeds, and used disability vehicles.
The tables below set out the current proposed timeframes for these standards to come into effect for light and heavy vehicles, and motorcycles and mopeds.
Used vehicle imports are provided more time than brand new vehicles to comply with the stronger standards, to minimise the risk of vehicle supply constraints. Similarly, standards for brand-new vehicles are first applied to newly introduced models before applying to vehicles manufacturers are already supplying.
Aotearoa currently allows vehicle importers to show evidence of harmful emission levels through several regional (European, Japanese, American, and Australian) or global standards (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)). This approach shall continue where broad equivalence is possible.
The proposed Amendment Rule change also removes outdated and redundant information.
Proposed lead in time for the changes is indicated in the tables below. The time period provided is for the amount of time that will be given between the Minister of Transport publishing the Amendment Rule in the New Zealand Gazette and that requirement coming into force. Indicative timeframes for when each requirement enters into force are provided in brackets. Indicative timeframes assume that the Amendment Rule is published in the Gazette in July 2023. The actual date that the Amendment Rule is gazetted may differ, meaning the entry into force may fall on a later date to allow for the appropriate lead in time.
Note that the last row of requirements in each table is proposed to be a fixed date, the lead in time for these requirements may change depending on when the Amendment Rule is published in the Gazette.
