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Toyota New Zealand CEO saddened by customer impact of Clean Car Discount announcement
Today’s announced changes to the Clean Car Discount (CCD) scheme has saddened Toyota New Zealand CEO, Neeraj Lala, due to the potential for it to affect affordability of low emission vehicle technology for customers.
“Many of our customers have placed orders in good faith for both high and low emission vehicles with a clear idea of what the rebate or fee will be as part of their affordability decision,” says Neeraj.
“As a brand, we hold the relationship with our customers at the heart of what we do, so I am saddened by the fact that many of them, who have waited extended periods for their vehicles due to us not being able to supply them fast enough, will now be penalised by either reduction of rebate or increase in fee with very little notice.”
“Unfortunately, the Clean Car Discount scheme is a relationship between the New Zealand Government and the consumer, but ultimately this decision impacts their relationship with our brand.”
“We remain concerned that there are sectors, such as agriculture or construction, who are being penalised by a significant fee increase when there are no suitable low emission options available yet,” he says.
“The fee increase on these models is significant and will affect the affordability of these models that these customers need for their livelihood.”
Toyota New Zealand is disappointed that volume hybrid electric vehicles have been removed from the rebate scheme given the high impact of decarbonisation and affordability they deliver to customers without range anxiety.
“I would like to reiterate to those customers who believe, like we do, that hybrids are a good transitionary technology that we will continue to offer them alongside our next generation of full battery electric vehicles over the next 18 months,” says Neeraj.
The increase of hybrids and other electrified options in Toyota’s line up has already reduced tailpipe emissions from our vehicles by 16% over the last 4 years.
“We are focused on the impact of our product line-up, and this means that we will continue to move all of our models to low emission versions, whether that be hybrid technology or battery electric technology, it’s about what is appropriate for that vehicle and customer needs,” says Neeraj.
“Our focus is to support our customers with affordable low emission technology when available across our entire line-up, which is why this decision today is disappointing for our customers.”
Toyota New Zealand remains on track to achieve both the strict emissions standards introduced by the Government by 2027, and achieve our own self-imposed Science-Based target of a 46% minimum reduction by 2030 as part of our efforts to keep global warming below 1.5⁰C.
“This ambition is achievable as we focus our efforts on securing as many of the 10 recently announced battery electric models in Japan.”
Toyota will introduce the first of our battery-electric models, the BZ4X – to New Zealand later this year.