KEY POINTS:
The Government is standing by its plan to microdot imported vehicles from next year despite criticism from a major car manufacturer.
The initiative, approved in May, involves tiny microdots being applied to imported vehicles, giving each of them a unique, traceable identity.
The measure was supported by police, who said it would make it easier to identify stolen parts and harder for thieves to change a vehicle's identity.
However, car maker Hyundai's New Zealand's executive director Philip Eustace has criticised the plan as another cumbersome, costly and unnecessary regulation.
The logistics of applying microdots to each of the 18,000 vehicles that come into New Zealand each month would cause headaches for the industry, he said.
"Every single vehicle will have to be transported from the wharf to the premises of the marking applicator and back again," he said.
The vehicle industry would be negatively affected by delays, he said.
"We also need to consider how long until the thieves get around this, for example spraying fake microdots onto cars, applying a solvent or painting over the dots."
Mr Eustace estimated the cost would be more than $200 per vehicle when extra handling, transport and storage was taken into account and that cost would be passed on to the consumer.
"Here is an entire new step in the system at a time when the industry is trying to bring down the cost of vehicles for new owners."
However, Transport Minister Annette King said the cost had been estimated at about $88 per vehicle.
She said the physical movement of imported vehicles should not be altered, because Land Transport NZ was working to incorporate the microdotting application into existing certification processes so it could occur on the same premises as the certification.
For used vehicles, which made up about 60 per cent of all imports, microdots could be added when vehicles were stripped to certify their safety which was already a requirement, she said.
The real "tax" was not microdotting, as claimed by Hyundai, but the one placed on good New Zealanders who have to pay through insurance, law enforcement and personal losses when their cars are stolen, she said.
"Hyundai should not be complacent about thefts of their vehicles. Organised car thieves can be every bit as inventive as those who are making vehicles safer."
David Lumsden, chief of Datadot, a company that makes the microdots, rubbished Hyundai's comments.
"It's not adding 200 bucks to a car at all and the owners of all the cars will get insurance discounts.
"So at the end of the day it's really not going to cost anyone.
"It's good for the police, good for the car owner, good for the insurance industry.
"The only losers are the criminals."
Subaru had already started using the microdots and several other motoring companies had indicated they were thinking of implementing them before the Government's mandatory date because they thought it was so effective, he said.
"I think Hyundai is a wee bit out on a limb here.'
He said it was not possible to void the dots by painting over them.
- NZPA
