9 August 2002
New Vehicle Industry Sides With ARC On Emissions Issue.
The Motor Industry Association, which represents the distributors of new vehicles in New Zealand, is in total support of
the Auckland Regional Council’s campaign to bring about some action on cleaning up vehicle emissions.
“We totally support the ARC’s comments that vehicle emissions are a significant health problem”, said MIA Chief
Executive Officer Perry Kerr.
“The new vehicle industry has been consistently pro-active in this area’, said Mr. Kerr “We have had an industry
agreement since January 1997 that all new petrol passenger cars must meet a recognized international standard for
emissions – meaning that they have a catalytic converter. The agreement does not cover diesel vehicles because of the
poor quality and high sulphur content of locally-refined diesel. Low quality fuel will not allow an emission control
system to work properly, and it is of great concern to us that a number of our members cannot even sell their
new-technology diesel engines here for this reason.”
The MIA has made a number of submissions to Government to introduce emissions testing as part of the in-service
(WOF/COF) testing regime. “Our requests have been ignored by officials,” said Mr. Kerr. “Our call for a seven year age
limit on used imports would also assist, as it would mean that we wouldn’t be importing as much outdated and worn-out
technology.”
“It is time for the dithering to stop,” Mr;.Kerr said. “The ARC has done some excellent work in quantifying and
highlighting the size of the problem, now it is up to central Government to bring us into line with other Western
countries.