Friday, April 5, 2024
3AW, Melbourne, Breakfast - Interview
Sharon has a similar theme. Good morning Sharon.
Good m...ing. Um, yeah. My father, he, um, he had his part of his finger amputated, um, in a workplace situation, and he kept his finger in the freezer so he could creep out the grandchildren. But when he passed away, we had to, um, request that the funeral home that we just add a little bit of dad into the casket.
Oh. That's magnificent. Unreal. I love he had the foresight to think I can use this as a gag to scare the kids. Oh, thanks for the call, Sharon. That's magnificent. Couple of bottles of, uh, the boiler going straight to you, Sharon. Good on you. Jeff Gwilhum joins us on the line. He's chief executive of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce. Good morning Jeff. Good morning. Uh, Australians bought a record number of new cars last month. Uh, I thought, uh, times were tough, but people are using those tough times to swap to hybrid and electric vehicle. So is this a trend because of the times or people just want those newer hybrid cars?
It's really interesting Jemmy it demonstrates a two speed economy. You've got a whole lot of people in the community that are doing it tough. Uh, and yet we've got record vehicle sales, which is great, 109,000 vehicles sold in March. Um, normally, you know, a bad month, 85,000 vehicles. So, you know, for all we know, we're going to hit a record again this year. Last year was one point, uh, you know, a million and 225,000 vehicles. Um, I my view of that in regard to electric vehicles is, yes, sales are going well. Electrified vehicles that's fully electric or partially, you know, plug in hybrids or conventional. Uh, they're at 23% of all vehicles sold, which is actually fantastic Nearly 10% of those are pure electrics. I still think we're in a space, though, where the people that can afford to buy them are. And I think we've got to do a lot more work to get the average working class family to make a decision to go and buy an electric vehicle, because it's still a stretch financially.
Hey, Jeff, uh, I'm driving a hybrid Lexus at the moment and, uh, my fuel bills are in half. Uh, before I actually got in the hybrid, I didn't know what was going on and why it saved petrol, but it's. If you don't know, it's the car actually charges the battery as it chugs along. It's quite incredible. Is this the future?
Yeah. Look, there's no doubt about it. I've just been over to the Geneva motor show. I was in Europe a couple of years ago. I've had staff in North America. Um, whether you were an internal combustion engine, uh, you know, a champion, um, the world will go electric on cars, whether they're plug in hybrids or conventional hybrids. Um, it it's just where we're going. It's governments around the world. Their policy really is focused around uh, a cleaner energy use, you know, making the air cleaner, particularly around metropolitan built up areas. And, you know, it's going to take a while, but it's where we're going. But, you know, the government, as you're probably aware, are just bringing through, uh, new legislation called the Nevs, which is the new vehicle, uh, efficiency standard Uh, that's going to really, uh, force encourage people to buy electric vehicles in the future government have a view that will make electric vehicles cheaper. Um, you know, we're yet to see that totally proven. But, you know, I think, uh, families really should be in their minds. It should be at the view that at some point they're going to be buying an EV.
Are they going to insure it, though? Uh, we read in the Herald Sun, page six, uh, 16% people are forgoing insurance.
Well, again, this is a two speed economy. Uh, you know, we've got record car sales and people doing it tough. What we know historically is that obviously when money gets tight, people make decisions about what they're going to spend that on. And of course, food protection, housing comes first. Um, another thing, though, that we need to consider is as we go