Governments fail EV report card

An Electric Vehicle Council report card has given the federal government an F for its lack of progress on EV policy.

Awarded ahead of World EV Day this week, the report card dishes out a similarly abysmal rating to Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

At the other end of the scale the Australian Capital Territory is best-rated with a B and New South Wales and Queensland score a C rating. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania were awarded Ds.

“Australia still lags behind the developed world in implementing policies that support the uptake of electric vehicles,” the EVC report stated.

“The last 12 months have seen some new policies emerge at the state level but there have still been no significant policy developments federally.

“It remains critical that governments at all levels adopt policies that reduce barriers to consumers and signal market viability to international car-makers.”

The EVC identifies high purchase costs, concerns about accessible charging infrastructure and insufficient awareness as barriers to increasing car buyers interested in EVs.

It also identified the restricted availability of EV models – especially lower priced models – in Australia because of the lack of government support that would justify marketing such model here.

“Those markets with government policies in place that encourage or mandate emissions reductions from vehicles are the markets that attract electric vehicles.

“These policies include emissions reductions targets, fuel efficiency standards, and average OEM fleet emissions regulations. Australia currently has none of these in place.”

The closest Australia comes to a fleet emissions target is the voluntary agreement recently announced by the manufacturers themselves as the federal government has been unable to move forward on its mandatory scheme.

The EVC reported NSW had made the most progress in advancing EV policies in Australia over the last year, bringing it more in line with the standard set by the ACT and Queensland.

“NSW recently announced commitments to further invest in public charging networks, provide co-funding for fleets to transition to electric vehicles, and electrify Sydney’s bus fleet,” the report noted.

“The Queensland Government has continued to implement The Future is Electric: Queensland’s Electric Vehicle Strategy and invest in public charging infrastructure along its Electric Super Highway.

“The ACT is progressing on meeting its strong targets to electrify its own fleet, including its bus fleet and has committed to making its buildings electric vehicle ready.”

The report notes hopefully the Victorian, SA, WA and NT governments have EV policies due over the next 12 months that should lift their grades.

But on the Morrison government in Canberra it was more circumspect.

“The federal government was due to release an electric vehicle strategy in mid-2020 but has not.”

The report did point out the federal government increased the threshold of the Luxury Car Tax, which will aid some EV buyers.

The federally-backed Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) have also provided some funding to EV projects over the last 12 months.