New and used road vehicles imported into New Zealand will be required to be fitted with an electronic stability control (ESC) anti-skid system by 2020, Associate Transport Minister Michael Woodhouse announced Thursday.
The new rule would cover all new light passenger and goods vehicles certified for entry into service from July 1 next year; all used four-wheel-drives and SUVs inspected at the border from March 1, 2106; used passenger cars with an engine capacity greater than 2 liters arriving from March 1, 2018 and all other used light passenger and goods vehicles from March 1, 2020.
ESC is a crash prevention system that intervenes if it detects that a vehicle is about to skid or lose traction by independently controlling the braking of each wheel to correct the vehicle and pull it back into line.
"The increase in ESC fitment over the next two decades is expected to prevent 432 deaths and 1,992 serious injuries, including 22 deaths and 102 serious injuries prevented as a direct result of the proposal to mandate," Woodhouse said in a statement.
"I am confident this timetable will ensure New Zealand consumers receive maximum safety benefits from the new technology, without choking supply from the imported used car market."
In mandating ESC, New Zealand would join the United States, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and the European Union, which had also introduced mandatory ESC for new light passenger vehicles.
The Motor Industry Association (MIA) welcomed the announcement, but had concerns the supply of some new light commercial makes and models would be restricted for a period from July 1 next year, as manufacturers in Australia and Japan would not have replacement models by that date.
"Australian research found that the fitment of ESC to vehicles in the Australian and New Zealand fleet was associated with a statistically significant 32-percent reduction in the risk of single vehicle crashes in which the driver was injured," MIA chief executive officer David Crawford said in a statement.
He also criticized the government's "lackadaisical approach" to requiring ESC on all used imported vehicles.
"The extended timeline afforded to used imports makes a mockery of tough requirements for new vehicles. Japan has been producing passenger cars with ESC in volume since 2011, so why the government is waiting until 2020 to require the volume of used imports (passenger vehicles with engines less than 2-liter capacity) to have ESC is a complete mystery," he said.
