New fuel efficiency standards due to come into force from January will not apply to at least four large vehicle models because of a gap within the legislation, the motor industry has been told.
The Albanese government said earlier this year its new vehicle efficiency standards (NVES) would save motorists about $1,000 a year while cutting fuel use and carbon emissions.
The new rules take effect from January but car makers have until July to start shifting their mix of models to meet the standards. The government’s strategy will penalise manufacturers with above average emissions – unless their models are exempt.
However, the industry has recently been told in a transport department presentation that vehicles with a gross weight of more than 3.5 tonnes and less than 4.5t are not currently required to have a carbon dioxide test, and so would not initially be covered by the standards.
“Our intention is that vehicles with more than 3.5 tonnes [gross vehicle mass] are carved in gradually if appropriate over the next few years as they are required to get CO2 tests under amendments to [the relevant] Australian Design Rule,” a slide from the department’s presentation, seen by Guardian Australia, stated.
“Our intention is to amend [the relevant design rule]”, it stated, with such vehicles then losing their exemption.
The exemptions would apply to variants of at least four models: Toyota Landcruiser 70, Ram 1500 Trx and 2500, and the Chevrolet Silverado HD, an industry source said.
A Toyota Australia spokesperson said the automaker had not received confirmation from the government that its model would be exempted.
The federal transport minister, Catherine King, said the efficiency standard was the result of “extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders”, and consultation on the exemption determination was open until 8 October.
“The 1 January 2025 implementation of the standard means consumers are already benefitting from access to better technology and more fuel savings, supporting the path to net zero by 2050,” King said.
Prior to the passage of the emissions standards, Australia was one of only two industrialised nations – along with Russia – without such vehicle limits.
Transport is one of Australia’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which the government has said it wants to reduce in a bid to cut carbon pollution 43% from 2005 levels by 2030.
The sector’s emissions have continued to increase in part because of more vehicles on the road – but also their increasing size. Exemptions may give consumers an incentive to purchase larger vehicles than they might otherwise have done.
The Coalition’s energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, said the standards policy had been “a disaster from the outset, and this is just the latest hiccup in Labor’s ill-considered approach to vehicle emissions”.
“The government refused to release modelling showing how much car prices would increase under its proposed emissions changes, and then it blocked our attempt to refer the legislation to committee for scrutiny,” O’Brien said.
“And now the government intends to grant exemptions to Australia’s highest emitting vehicles because they don’t fit within the current construct of the policy,” he said. “What an utter mess.”
The government plans to conduct periodic reviews of the NVES, starting in 2026.
According to a source, the exemptions continued despite three consultation rounds and about $750,000 being spent on modelling that failed to reveal that “the biggest, dirtiest polluters would not be captured” by the legislation.
Independent MP Zali Steggall said it was “critical” the government closed “loopholes” in the standards.
“We have to – with urgency – address transport emissions,” she said. “Everyone should be treated equally.”
Steggall added that her constituents also contacted her regularly about the threat to the safety of pedestrians and others of these “very large vehicles’”.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from each of the carmakers.
