New push to ban petrol cars in Australia in just 12 years

Australians should be banned from buying new fossil-fuel powered cars within just 12 years, according to the lobby group that represents the electric vehicle industry, in a proposal that has been slammed as ‘police state madness’.

The Electric Vehicle Council is pushing for every state and territory to mandate targets for the sale of electric cars after the ACT last month became the first Australian jurisdiction to ban new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035.

However, opponents say Aussies should be free to choose what cars they can buy. 

The Electric Vehicle Council represents businesses ‘involved in producing, powering and supporting’ electric vehicles, according to its website. 

In a report ahead of an electric vehicle summit with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen on August 19, the Council proposes a four-stage phase-out of petrol cars.

It wants states and territories to adopt targets mandating the percentage of new car sales that must be electric. 

The Council’s suggested targets are 10 per cent by 2025, 30 per cent by 2027, 55 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035. 

The new Labor government has not introduced mandated targets at a federal level but the Council believes each state and territory should adopt them.

‘This type of scheme could also be introduced nationally as an alternative to fuel-efficiency targets if it proved to be a more feasible option,’ its report says.   

The Electric Vehicle Council wants states and territories to adopt targets mandating the percentage of new car sales that must be electric

The UK will ban new petrol cars from 2030 and the EU will stamp them out from 2035.

Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari said Australia risks falling behind the rest of the world without such targets. 

He told The Australian newspaper: ‘While the world was accelerating towards electric vehicles, Australia has fallen behind.

‘It’s time for Australia to join the rest of the world in its transition to zero-emissions vehicles to avoid being used as a dumping ground for old polluting cars.’ 

However, NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham said mandatory targets added up to ‘police state madness of controlling what cars people can own and drive.’

‘This is forcing working people under enormous cost of living pressures to buy $60,000 cars, mostly imported from China, with zero impact on global surface temperatures,’ he said.

‘Plus hitting taxpayers to pay for charging stations, subsidising the wealthy who own these things.’   

Preparing Australia to accommodate millions of electric cars which have to be charged will cost billions of dollars.

In a report ahead of an electric vehicle summit with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen (right) on August 19, the Electric Vehicle Council proposes a four-stage phase-out of petrol cars

Professor Guoxiu Wang, the director of the Centre for Clean Energy Technology at the University of Technology in Sydney, said the country will need a massive overhaul to its current infrastructure to successfully electrify its roads.

‘Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of developed countries. Progress is very slow and dependent on government policy,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

Professor Wang said this is the most critical part to electrifying Australia’s roads, and that until there is significant work done on building charging stations and extending the range for EVs, there won’t be any meaningful change.

‘My biggest concern is infrastructure. In major capital cities we don’t have infrastructure to accommodate totally replacing internal combustion engine cars,’ he said.

‘We need more charging stations – not only at home but at institutions, government buildings, office buildings and petrol stations. If there’s huge infrastructure development, people will 100 per cent adopt them.’ 

Meanwhile another report says Australia could help drivers save billions of dollars by matching fuel efficiency rules imposed by other countries on cars and light trucks.

Stronger standards for new vehicles would cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the cost at the bowser, according to the Australia Institute report released on Monday.

It found $5.9 billion in fuel costs would have been saved, and emissions equivalent to a year’s worth of domestic flights avoided, if robust fuel efficiency standards had been adopted in 2015.

New standards would reduce Australia’s reliance on foreign oil and also encourage dealers to put more electric vehicle models into a market where demand is outstripping supply, the report said.

Emissions from the transport sector make up one-fifth of Australia’s total and are among the fastest-growing sources nationally, sparking calls for fuel standards that have been rejected by prior federal governments.

‘Australian motorists are the victims of having one of the world’s least efficient and most polluting car fleets, and it’s costing us every time we fill up at the petrol pump,’ the institute’s climate and energy director Richie Merzian said.

As the fuel excise cut comes to an end in September, policymakers have an opportunity to save motorists money by introducing an average efficiency standard for new cars in Australia, he said.

Unlike most advanced countries, Australia does not have mandatory fuel economy standards.

Instead, voluntary rules have been in place since the 1970s and a new industry-led emissions standard was introduced in 2020 for passenger cars and SUVs.

The report found the current voluntary standard is ‘weak and opaque’.

Mr Merzian said efficiency standards are a widespread and modest mechanism used by governments globally to ensure new cars are less polluting.

In 2018, the average carbon dioxide intensity for new passenger vehicles in Australia was 169.8 compared to 129.9 in the United States, 120.4 in Europe and 114.6 in Japan, the report said.

Almost two in three Australians (65 per cent) support the introduction of national fuel efficiency standards in line with those in Europe, according to the institute.

With AAP