Honda threatens local ATV withdrawal

After 35 years of selling ATVs in Australia, the end of the road could be nigh for Honda.

The Japanese manufacturer has announced, in unequivocal fashion, that it will stop selling ATVs in Australia if a draft standard proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) becomes law.

ACCC has delivered on its promise to target ATV safety as one of its priorities and, in final recommendations made to the minister in February 2019, the nation’s peak competition regulator and consumer law organisation has called for four major additions to the ATV framework in Australia over a two-year time frame: meeting US standards, testing for lateral and longitudinal stability, adding extra consumer information (ie a warning label) and fitting an operator protection device (OPD) – either integrated into the design or fitted as an aftermarket device.

Second-hand ATVs will be exempt from the standards, except for those which are imported.

According to Honda Australia, the proposed ACCC standard for all new ATVs is “flawed, unworkable and may put farmers’ lives at greater risk”. The company also takes issue with an increase in regulatory red tape and a New Zealand-made OPD device which the ACCC says is acceptable – but Honda claims will be tasked with supporting a weight well over its limit in the result of a rollover.

Further, the requirement to fit OPDs is also not supported by recommendations from coronial inquests held in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania.

“No reputable company can meet the proposal because it lacks engineering and design rigour. Any company that tries to meet the standard will be open to the accusation that it is playing with farmers’ lives,” said Honda Australia Motorcycle & Power Equipment’s Managing Director, Mr Robert Toscano.

“Honda won’t fit devices to our ATVs that real world studies have shown do not improve safety.

“One requirement is to fit some sort of protection bar that has no design standard or proven safety effect. As some form of experimentation, the ACCC hopes that the farmers will do the testing for them.

“Honda is calling on the ACCC to make safety recommendations, which are evidence-based, in both criteria and testing methods, to internationally accepted standards.”

Honda has been selling ATVs in Australia since 1984, and first made noises in 2010 that it would re-consider its position in Australia if OPDs became law.

In the first quarter of 2019, Honda sold 626 ATVs in Australia, second only to Polaris.

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“The evidence is overwhelmingly clear that wearing a helmet and keeping children off adult-sized ATVs will drastically cut injuries and save lives,” continued Mr Toscano. “It is absurd you must wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, or even a bicycle, but that it’s okay to not wear a helmet on an ATV.

“Even if the ACCC succeeds in pushing reputable manufacturers out of Australia, the problem won’t be addressed until wearing helmets is made mandatory, and children are kept off all adult-sized work vehicles, including Side-by-Side vehicles (SSV), Utes and ATVs.”

Public consultation is now being invited on the ACCC proposals, and closes at 5:00pm on June 10, 2019. To make a submission, click here.