New Zealand won’t pursue fuel economy standard

The New Zealand government will not proceed with the development of a regulated vehicle fuel economy standard, as proposed by the previous Labour government. While the details of the scheme were never confirmed, it would have meant that importers of less fuel efficient vehicles would have needed to buy credits, and more fuel efficient vehicles would have been awarded credits. It is estimated that the scheme could have resulted in costs of up to NZ$1,500 (US$1,023) when purchasing a larger car.”While most countries deal with only a small number of importers and manufacturers, New Zealand does not have a domestic vehicle manufacturing industry and imports a large number of used vehicles through several thousand importers. This means that the proposed scheme would have been difficult and costly to carry out,” said Transport Minister Steven Joyce. Joyce says the government is focused on reducing transport emissions without imposing significant costs. (August 29, 2009)