Operating my CO2 Account

A CO₂ account number is mandatory to be able to certify and register vehicles. A CO₂ account is required even if the importer is only bringing in one vehicle either for sale or personal use. Separate CO₂ accounts are required for used and new vehicles.

This section describes the different elements of the CO₂ account. You’ll find more detailed instructions in the Training Hub.

Registering for a CCS CO₂ account

Setting up a CO₂ account in the Clean Car Standard (CCS) system will take you about five minutes.

The account will be opened by default under a Pay as You Go (PAYG) scheme. Once the account is opened, you’ll be able to invite other people to have access to the account and manage the account settings and permissions.

Dashboard monitoring

Each CO₂ account has a dashboard (summary section) where an importer can track how many vehicles are awaiting acceptance, their CO₂ credit balance and any commitments such as their pending charges balance, or their net position for Fleet Average.

Settings and administration

The CCS System provides different access profiles depending on the role of the person and what permissions they have. The available permissions are:

• view account
• add users / grant permissions
• accept / dispute vehicles
• transfer credits
• edit account details

Vehicle records

The CCS system automatically creates vehicle records in the importer’s CO₂ account based on records in the Motor Vehicle Register.

There are three main sequential status steps for each vehicle record:

1. ‘Vehicles entered in CCS system’ – created by assigning the CCS CO₂ Account number to the VIN or Chassis number
2. ‘Vehicles ready for acceptance’ – pending acceptance once compliance (for used vehicles) or pre-delivery inspection (PDI) (for new vehicles) is completed
3. ‘Accepted’ – once the importer accepts it as being their vehicle with the correct details

Accepting vehicles

Importers have the ability to ‘auto accept’ vehicles in their CO₂ account, or they can manually accept vehicles.

For used cars, there’s no time limit or due date to accept a vehicle. However, it can’t be registered until it has been accepted – once it is accepted, this automatically allows the vehicle to be registered.

Disputing records

You can let NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) know if you think there is an error in your account – for example, if your CCS CO₂ account is missing a vehicle(s), you don’t agree with CCS CO₂ values, or you’d like to reject a vehicle because it’s in the wrong account.

To do this, use the ‘dispute’ button in the vehicle information details screen.

This will notify NZTA of the dispute and we’ll contact you.

Vehicles need to be disputed before they are accepted as correct and valid in your CCS CO₂ account. NZTA will always make a correction if a certification error is proven to have been made.

Closing/suspending accounts

An account can be closed, although there is no cost to keep the account open. To close an account all charges must be paid. If the account has a credit balance this should be transferred otherwise the credits will be deleted.

NZTA has the right to suspend accounts. This action may be taken in the case of deliberate non-compliance. Suspension means vehicles are unable to be accepted in the CO₂ account, which prevents certification and registration.