Last week, advancements were made regarding the shift toward EV batteries, as Australia held its first ever national EV summit in Canberra.
With the guest speakers ranging from Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of Atlassian, to Paul Sansom, the Group Managing Director of Volkswagen Australia, and Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla, the summit paved a path toward the future of electric vehicles within Australia.
And the overall message from the summit was clear – expand Australia’s electric vehicle market, whilst improving the nation’s fuel efficiency standards.
Currently, Australia is one of four members of the G20 countries to not have a set of clear and compulsory fuel efficiency standards. This has resulted in the nation becoming the prime destination for vehicles from European, American, and Asian car manufacturers that fail to meet the fuel efficiency regulations of their homelands.
“At the moment frankly, I’m sorry to say Australia is a dumping ground for cars which would not be able to be sent to other countries, ” Chris Bowen, Climate Change Minister, states, as these international manufacturers are not incentivized to send quality electric and no emission vehicles to Australia.
Last year, the number of new electric vehicles sold within Australia was 2%. In comparison, the global average in the final quarter of 2021 was 13%, with both Europe and China leading the way.
Under the former government, the coalition aimed to spend A$200 million on deploying charging infrastructure for businesses and housing, along with the construction of public charging stations.
However, they failed to address many issues surrounding the uptake of electric vehicles within the country – such as issues regarding the high costs of EV’s, fuel efficiency standards, and adequate direct policies to promote the shift toward EV battery.
Hence, Australia’s lagging the global leaders in the space.
Now, the Albanese government has an opportunity to make EV a staple principle in their policies and catch up with the global leaders in the space.
And the summit is a good way to start this process.
On Friday, Mr. Bowen outlined a position paper due in September to develop a clear EV strategy and adopt and implement a thorough set of fuel efficiency standards.
Having a clear date set in place is important. It places urgency on the issue and heightens its significance.
In doing so, the Climate Change Minister made it clear that the introduction of these fuel efficiency standards will make it harder for manufacturers to send their ‘dirty’ internal combustion vehicles to Australia, in turn increasing the supply and reducing the overall price of electric powered vehicles in this country.
This will ultimately aid in narrowing the gap between internal combustion and electric vehicles, making them accessible to all Australians.
Mr. Sansom then proposed the idea of introducing incentives in the range of $5,000 to $10,000, adding that these incentives didn’t necessarily have to be in the form of cash. They “could include EV use of bus lanes or designated parking spaces, which could be phased out as demand increased,” Peter Hannam, from The Guardian writes.
With consumer interest already high – carsales.com recently reporting that EV searches reached an all-time high in mid-March – the idea of introducing incentives could create a tipping point.
The guest members also pushed the Federal Government to make these changes at a faster rate.
Zoe Daniel, the Independent Federal MP for Goldstein, Victoria, outlined that there is no reason that the government should stop working on EV policies and expects Mr. Bowen to settle on having them in place before the end of the year.
Ms. Denholm noted that the introduction of good fuel efficiency standards starts with “catching up to the rest of the world as fast as humanly possible,” so that Australia keeps up with the global leaders.
And by having a date set in place whereby the position paper is due, it accelerates the final makeup of the standards.
However, despite the fact that Australia is currently behind the curve, Mr. Bowen also made it clear that these policy initiatives can have a significant impact in a short period of time.
Sweden increased its number of EV sales from 18% to 62% within 2 years after introducing a set of EV policies.
Another example of this is New Zealand, where EV sales jumped from 3% to 10% in a little over a year after offering subsidies up to NZ$8,625 (A$7,728) for all new electric vehicles and NZ$3,450 (A$3,091) for used cars, as well as the introduction of charges on the import of high-emission utility vehicles and SUVs.
So, with the right policies set in place, electric powered vehicles can have an immediate and immense impact within the nation.
