We knew the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) was going to shake up the Australian vehicle landscape, but we would never have guessed that the first casualties would be quite such innocuous-looking vehicles.

NVES was introduced on January 1 of this year, but the tracking of vehicle imports, and consequent fines for not meeting the targets, only started at the beginning of July. Because of a technicality in how two-wheel drive versions of popular Aussie 4x4s are categorised, they now no longer qualify as light commercials and instead come under the more exacting standards of passenger vehicles.

As a consequence, Ford has announced that it has stopped imports of the Everest 4×2, the budget-friendly way into Everest ownership, as these models will now attract significant fines. The irony that the 4×2 vehicles are lighter, more fuel-efficient and emit less CO2 than their 4×4 siblings isn’t lost on us. Yet this reclassification now makes them commercially non-viable.

To explain in a little more detail why some Everest owners will be surprised that they’ve been driving a ‘commercial vehicle’, the regulations divide the market into two discrete sets of CO2 targets – one for passenger cars and SUVs, categorised as ‘Type 1’ vehicles, and a separate class for light commercials such as utes and vans, known as ‘Type 2’ vehicles. By a quirk of the rules, an SUV can be categorised a Type 2 light commercial if it features a ladder-framed construction, can tow at least three tonnes (braked) and has four-wheel drive.

In real terms, it means that a rear-wheel-drive Everest 2.0 Ambiente that emits 187g/km fails to meet its weight-adjusted Type 1 category target of 173g/km, incurring Ford a $1046 fine per vehicle imported. Contrast that to the 4×4 Everest 2.0 Ambiente, which needs to hit its weight-adjusted Type 2 target of 215g/km and easily aces that assignment, emitting 190g/km and incurring no penalties, for the time being at least.

There are certain workarounds in the regulations where manufacturers can offset fines with the credits earned by selling other cars that meet the targets or buy them from other manufacturers. Given that the 4×4 models easily outsell the 4×2 variants (by a ratio of 9:1), what’s the big issue? Looking ahead, it’s clear that the problem is only going to get more acute. As the NVES regulations stand, with each year’s targets getting stricter, by the end of the decade each 4×2 Everest would have been costing Ford over $10,000 in fines.

Other manufacturers such as Isuzu are also looking set to reassess rear-drive versions of the MU-X, and rear-drive variants of the LDV D90 also look set to come under greater scrutiny.

NVES was never going to be an easy introduction, but it needed to happen. Australia currently has an average vehicle emission 20 per cent higher than the US and 40 per cent higher than Europe. Even given the nature of this country, that doesn’t stand up to any reasonable defence. It’s just a shame that the first casualties of the legislation are vehicles that emit less CO2 than their higher-polluting siblings. Shooting yourself in the foot never looked so virtuous.

This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of Wheels. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue since 1953.