Aiming high

24 February 2023

On a recent trip to examine electric vehicle (EV) policies in Europe and the UK, one thing became very clear: most EV targets set by governments are aspirational and, I’d say, largely unachievable. 

That doesn’t mean overall transitions from internal combustion vehicles to EVs won’t be met – it is the timeline set by governments that raises eyebrows. 

In Australia, the Federal Government has a very ambitious zero and low-emission vehicles policy agenda. Labor’s strategy claims 89 per cent of new car sales will be electric by 2030.

Now, I acknowledge that if governments don’t set aspirational uptake targets, the transition will take even longer than intended.  

Except for Norway, which has spent over a decade throwing billions of dollars at its transition, most governments (including our own) don’t have clearly articulated plans that take into consideration how middle and lower-income earners will dump their clunker for a new or used EV.  

This is a major oversight and one that is likely to see Australia’s car fleet increase from an average of around 10.7 years to something more akin to a European Union fleet age, which is 11.8 years. 

Without more considered thinking on this challenge, we run the risk of freezing out a large part of the community, which may also be exposed to Co2 levies attached to older internal combustion engine vehicles.  

For the oldies, too, on a pension, where is the incentive to get them into an EV or even a plug-in hybrid?         

If we look at countries that are years ahead of the Australian EV position (including the countries I visited), in terms of transitioning their vehicle fleets, there is a direct correlation between the amount of incentivisation offered to get people into EVs and the degree to which their countries moved towards clean fleet targets.

Something not just to think about, but to act on…

Words: VACC CEO Geoff Gwilym. As featured in the Herald Sun on 24 February 2023.