New grey import laws: The facts

Despite being given the green light to import low-volume, left-hand drive hypercars like the Bugatti Chiron, Australians will still be unable to register them in any state when new personal vehicle import rules come into effect in 2019.

At the same time, changes to the Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicle Scheme (SEVS) announced by the federal government this week will ban the import of relatively cheap family vehicles like the Nissan Elgrand and Mitsubishi Delica, decimating the specialist vehicle import industry.

While you will be able to get an import permit for your new or used Chiron under the RHD or LHD 'rare vehicle' import threshold announced by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) this week, once here it’ll be stuck in the garage or driven only on a racetrack.

For most states, a LHD vehicle must be at least 25 years old before it can be registered and driven on public roads.

A personal-import vehicle of any age (that has been used overseas by the owner for a minimum of 12 months) can be fully registered for personal use in the Northern Territory, while in WA any LHD passenger vehicle can be registered for personal use – but only once the vehicle is 15 years old.

But while the new import laws won’t open the floodgates for new or used LHD hypercars on our roads under a new low-volume clause – or allow ‘parallel’ imports of new and near-new models already available here via their manufacturers, as originally proposed — they will put a stop to imports of a raft of vehicles not officially available here, heavily impacting the grey import industry.

The Australian Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association estimates that the proposed changes to SEVS will reduce imported vehicle numbers by more than 50 per cent, resulting in “most of the 142 registered workshops and many more ancillary businesses closing their doors”.

The industry has been rocked by the end of the current loophole that allows people-movers to be complied in Australia as a camper van. Under existing SEVS rules, importers can remove a people-mover’s rear seats, add a basic kitchen and get the vehicle complied, then return it to a people-mover and sell it as such.

In 2015, such ‘camper vans’ represented 72 per cent of the 7500 used imports complied under the SEVS scheme.

Under the new rules, only factory-built or factory-commissioned campervans or motorhomes will be given an import permit.

According to AIMVIA spokesperson Kristian Appelt, there are very few dedicated OEM camper vans available – and the market for them here is small – and trying to convert one back to a people-mover is “not economically viable”.

“Our biggest issue with it is that there is no volume. There are a lot of cars being cut out of the scheme and there’s not enough volume coming back into it to sustain the industry.”

To be eligible for the proposed SEVS rules, a particular vehicle make, model or variant cannot be available in Australia from mainstream importers. Then it will have to pass one of the six following SEVS criteria:

Performance Vehicles
For vehicles manufactured in 1992, the proposed power to weight ratio is 110kW per tonne. For each year of manufacture post 1992, the required power to weight ratio will increase by 1kW/T.

Environmental Performance Vehicles: Hybrids, EVs, and Kei-cars (the latter specified as low-emission cars having maximum engine capacity of 660cc, maximum engine output of 47kW, not more than 3.4 metres in length and 1.48 metres in width).

Mobility Vehicles
Originally manufactured or fitted from the factory with substantive specialist mobility features; or modified after original manufacture but limited to modifications that the original manufacturer endorses and takes responsibility for.

Rare Vehicles
Total worldwide production by the vehicle manufacturer of less than 3000 units per year (averaged over the production period for the subject model); or total worldwide production of the vehicle ‘Model’ is less than 1000 units per year (averaged over the production period for the model); or total worldwide production of the vehicle ‘Variant’ is less than 100 vehicles per year worldwide (averaged over the production period for the variant).

In addition, left-hand drive vehicles imported under the rarity criterion will not require conversion to right-hand drive.

According to Appelt, the ‘Performance Vehicle’ threshold severely limits what cars can be brought in.

“Their power-to weight threshold is ridiculous. To buy a 2017 car that meets SEVS [as a performance vehicle], there are only three cars in Japan that meet them: the Nissan R35 GT-R, the new Honda NSX and the Civic Type R.”

Most Japanese performance cars are capped at 206kW, as part of a long-standing gentleman’s agreement among Japanese car manufacturers.

“So from about 2008, any vehicle that falls into that category won’t be eligible,” Appelt said.

“They wanted it to be for specialist and enthusiasts but they’ve effectively turned it into very limited sports car scheme.”

Performance cars that will be eligible under the new scheme include the 2005 Subaru Forester STI and 2005 Mitsubishi Evo 9 – cars that will have reached 13 years old by the time that they can be imported.

Existing criteria that will disappear not only include camper vans, but also makes not sold in Australia, models not sold in the same category, single-cab 4WD utes, vehicles with unusual design features and vehicles featured in specialist magazines.

While the initial proposal to allow private buyers to import RHD cars (from the UK or Japan and less than 500km or 12 months old) already offered here by volume importers has been scrapped, the proposal to allow cars older than 25 years (in place of the current pre-1989 rule) remains in place.