More competition key to local EV take-up, says Audi

Audi Australia says it is energised by competition in the emerging premium electric SUV segment.

Speaking at the global reveal of the all-electric Audi e-tron SUV, Audi Australia managing director Paul Sansom said more entrants in the market would speed up the development of charging infrastructure and could accelerate government policy-making.

“The more competition the better from a consumer point of view,” he said. “The more volume there is the more demand there’ll be for the infrastructure around it.

“So decisions like we’re talking about with government, like supercharge highways, those sort of things will be amplified by more competition in the market.”

Australia’s peak auto industry body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), and the EV Council have been lobbying both sides of politics for incentives to support the transition to EVs in Australia.

So far, neither the incumbent government nor the opposition have published a policy position on EVs.

Sansom said that financial incentives and infrastructure were key areas of policy discussion, with industry hoping to mirror more established EV markets like California and Europe.

“First and foremost affordability is key. In other markets the government are quite generously in incentivising OEMs to sell electric vehicles. That hasn’t happened yet in Australia -- the industry is still pushing.

“If you look into other markets the UK for instance, you’re talking about 5000 Euros and that seems to be a flat fee. I guess you’ve got to be commensurate with them, with what’s happening around the world in other markets.”

Sansom said range anxiety, which exacerbated by the lack of EV charging points ion Australia, was the other problem facing EVs here.

“Secondly, consumers have this range anxiety, so those two things -- affordability and range anxiety -- are probably the two biggest issues,” he said.

“Whether it’s charging at home or supercharge highways, all of those things are well advanced in our market and I’m confident that when we bring our e-tron to the market, those issues -- certainly the range anxiety issues -- we’ll be able to satisfy.”

Meantime, Audi is pairing with charging company JET Charge to offer an 11kW wallcharger for e-tron buyers. The system will fully charge the 95kW Audi e-tron battery in around 8.5 hours.

While a faster charging Connect system will be available in other markets, it hasn’t yet been confirmed for Australia.

In terms of simplifying charging outside the home, Audi believes there is good collaboration across the industry to find a single solution that will be announced in coming months.

In Europe Audi will offer an RFID card that works across different charging companies, saving customers the need to sign up with multiple providers.

Sansom said that should the government fail to provide the industry with a cohesive EV policy, Audi will not be deterred from introducing the e-tron and other future Audi EVs to Australia.

“The fact that that may not happen, you have to think of a contingency for that, but it’s not changing our plans, that’s the important thing,” Sansom said.

“The plans will go beyond any government, because the OEMs are making these cars. The mix of these cars is going to become considerably higher over the next few years and take up a fair share of the overall production.

“The options for consumers are going to be greater and greater and greater. There’s going to be demand from the markets and I think it is when that demand and that noise becomes so great in the market that the government will make a move to accommodate these cars.”