New Clean Car Discount rebates and fees from 1 April 2022

Oliver Neighbourly Lead from One Tree Point

So far only rebates have been granted for fully electric (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles coming to NZ, but from 1 April 2022 the fee component of the Clean Car Discount scheme for dirty vehicles that emit 192g/km CO2 or more will kick in. It's shown in the orange part of the image below.
Right-wing political parties and Groundswell NZ were quick to call the fee a "ute tax", but of course we all know that this is actually nonsense - it's not a fee for that particular type of vehicle. It just so happens that pretty much all utes brought into NZ exceed the above CO2 emissions threshold. Automobile manufacturers are used to NZ being a willing market for their dirtiest and highest-emitting vehicles. We're only too happy to buy them because we're uneducated or indifferent enough to care about carbon emissions and air pollution, or because we pretend that we don't have an alternative (which makes this story all the more enjoyable).
For those of us who need a high-emitting ute (or think we do, because Brian two doors down has got one, and we need to keep up), the best way to avoid the "ute tax", ahem, fee is to buy a used vehicle that is already in NZ and has been polluting here for a while. And there is a healthy market developing for those, as more and more of us switch to fuel-efficient vehicles and trade in our guzzlers - which is actually not paying that well. So there will be heaps of great-looking utes available shortly, as the wealthy among us replace our Remuera tractors with Teslas, and cheap as dirt, literally.
The fee is only charged on new or used high-emitting vehicles that enter NZ for the first time, which is exactly what we don't want - more dirty cars that spend up to 20 years on our roads. So let's just stick with what's here already, and voila - no fee, no tax, and cheap to buy, too - just as we like it.