“Industry groups like the Vehicle Industry Association (VIA) have had enough of the Government’s lack of consultation and refusal to see reason when it comes to the Clean Car Programme,” says ACT’s Transport spokesperson Simon Court.

“VIA has withdrawn its support for the scheme citing “ongoing failures in the implementation of the Clean Car Discount.”

“They stated that the Clean Car Discount is: “contributing to unfair market conditions, increased costs to consumers and industry, decreasing public trust in parallel imports, and decreased efficacy of the Programme.”

“The reality is that the Clean Car Discount has always been virtue signalling nonsense from a Government that hates petrol-powered cars and is out of touch with the practicalities of many Kiwis’ day to day lives. It is bad public policy and predictably is making life harder for Kiwis.

“It has been plagued by hundreds of data issues that meant it hasn’t even been applied consistently, and dealers and consumers have had to pay fees that don’t add up and were likely shaped by poor data.

“It’s not like they weren’t warned either. ACT, industry and consumers all told the Government that it wouldn’t work when the Government announced it. The Motor Industry Association estimated it would instead increase the price of light vehicles by 15-20 per cent.

“ACT would scrap these hopeless schemes altogether. Instead of taxing tradies to subsidise EVs, we would give every household a carbon tax refund from the Emissions Trading Scheme of around $750 every year to use as they see fit. The scheme raises over $1.5 billion every year by charging kiwis for their carbon emissions, we say Kiwis should get a refund and choose whether to spend the money on a heat pump, an EV or putting gas in the car.

“Instead of seeing sense and listening to the feedback the Government chose to punish farmers, tradies, large families and many other consumers with higher used vehicle costs as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis.”

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