New car fleet- Govt opts for Aussie-made over climate-friendly

The Northern Territory Government has refused to switch its car fleet to the most environmentally-friendly models on the market because they are not made in Australia.

But the Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, says his plan to switch the fleet to less polluting Australian models will reduce the emission rates of the fleet by 20 percent over five years.

Mr Henderson announced today that from July the government's VIP fleet of V8s will be replaced with V6 models and converted to gas.

Thousands of other government cars will also gradually be replaced with cars that meet the minimum greenhouse emission rate.

The Government currently uses a small number of environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius cars, but has ruled out replacing its entire fleet with that model because it is not made in Australia.

"Look we're also trying to support local dealers and Australian manufacturers," he said.

"So Australian manufacturers Holden and Ford will have cars that reach the 5.5 percent standard in the market place by the middle of this year.

"We don't want to see Australians thrown out of work by buying too many of our cars from overseas."

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Mon 13th April 2009 - 02:53pm