In the aftermath of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (better known as COP26), the Coalition Government has unveiled a new $250 million electric vehicle policy – a stunning backflip for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who during the 2019 election railed against Labor’s EV policies, saying that they would “end the weekend” because EVs can’t tow or go off-road.
The policy centres around working with the private sector to improve Australia’s EV charging network as well as low-interest financing support for fleet vehicles. It’s a (somewhat) refreshing change of pace after years of inaction from the federal government, but critics have already got stuck into Morrison for this strategy, which they reckon doesn’t go far enough.
“Unlike every leading electric vehicle market globally, the plan delivers no financial or tax support to help Australian motorists make the switch to a cleaner car,” a trio of University of Queensland researchers explained in The Conversation.
“The government has failed to explain how the policy will help Australia achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, just as it failed to do when releasing its economy-wide emissions reduction plan last month… the new plan is not the national electric vehicle strategy Australia deserves and badly needs.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has been particularly pointed in his criticism, pointing out that this new policy passes more than a slight resemblance to the Labor policy Morrison pooh-poohed, telling Sky News that “it fails the laugh test.”
“[Morrison’s] hoping that people are goldfish, and they don’t remember what happened just two years ago.”
In short: it’s too little, too late, and out of step with the rest of the planet. Talk about embarrassing.
Speaking of embarrassing, watch the Tesla Model S Plaid embarrass Europe’s supercars by doing 0-60mph in under 2 seconds below.
As Albanese has pointed out on numerous occasions, Australia only needs to look to the example of Norway to see how easy it can be to get people driving EVs.
Despite the fact that Norway is a prominent oil producer, you not only receive substantial financial incentives when purchasing a new electric car, but EVs are also exempt from the annual road tax, all public parking fees, toll payments and are even allowed to use bus lanes in the Scandinavian country.
The upshot of this is that Norway is now the world’s keenest adopter of EVs. For reference, around 74.8% of all light vehicles sold in 2020 in Norway were electric, compared to 6.2% in China (the world’s biggest EV market and manufacturer) and less than 2% in Australia.
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Of course, Norway is a smaller and richer country than Australia. But like Australia, Norway has a tough and unforgiving landscape – especially during their hellishly cold winters – and no local auto manufacturing industry to speak of.
That’s really the only part of the government’s argument that holds water: why subsidise new EV sales when car makers already have a vested interest in making EVs more affordable? “Our plans aren’t about sending a lot of taxpayers’ money off to big multinationals to get costs down. They’ll do that themselves. They’ve a keen interest in doing that,” Morrison has said.
It’s a good point, but probably not a driving factor (pun intended) behind the government’s policy. We’d wager ideology and the fossil fuel lobby have had more of an influence on policy than that thought.
At the end of the day, it’s Australian consumers who are going to lose out. We’re already set back by behind geographically isolated and a right-hand drive country – car companies simply won’t bring their cool new EVs Down Under without a more progressive federal EV policy as they won’t be able to justify the cost.
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What’s interesting is how in the absence of federal leadership, some Australian states are coming out with their own, slightly more progressive EV policies. Check out our report on NSW’s new EV scheme, as well as its pros and cons.
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The post “Fails The Laugh Test”: Australia’s New Electric Car Strategy Is Embarrassingly Bad appeared first on DMARGE.
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