Labour’s new master plan to green Australia’s roads will fill showrooms with cars no one really wants – while ignoring our best-selling vehicles, car experts of the humble tradition warn.
The National Electric Vehicle Strategy, announced last month, sets fuel emission limits for all new vehicles. Car manufacturers are allowed to average them across their range, with low-emission EVs offsetting fuel-guzzling SUVs.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen believes the strategy will give manufacturers an incentive to flood the market with cheaper electric cars to revolutionize Australia’s roads.
But the country’s most popular vehicles are fuel-burning cars – with the Toyota HiLux consistently topping Australia’s car sales charts since 2016 and the Ford Ranger ute closely following.
Even car dealers are warning that Australia’s unique market will struggle to convince automakers to bring electric cars – and many other EV models – Down Under.
There is currently only one electric car on the market in Australia, and despite the potential popularity, they will still be niche sales in a niche market for car manufacturers.
“We’re not at the top of their list,” said Geoff Gwilym, CEO of the Motor Trades Association of Australia. “We are not even 1 percent of global car sales.
“If you make left-hand drive cars in the US, there are plenty of markets you can deploy them in before you even think of a small right-hand drive market like ours.”
The government’s proposal – which has been put to industry for discussion – comes as vehicles emit 10 per cent of Australia’s CO2 pollution each year.
Australia is well behind the UK, Europe and even the US in EV adoption, though local EV sales boomed in Q1 2023, up 90 percent from Q4 from 2022.
Mid-size electric cars outsold their petrol or diesel-powered rivals for the first time, according to sales data from the Australian Automobile Association.
But utes remain the first choice for Australian car buyers, with more than one in five of every new vehicle sold in the country last year, a workhorse of a tradition.
“Giving buyers more choice is all very well – but if buyers want a car, it doesn’t matter that there are many electric sedans and SUVs to choose from,” said an industry insider.
There is currently only one electric car on the market in Australia, the LDV eT60, and there is little chance of any others appearing soon.
Even Tesla’s much-hyped Cybertruck still hasn’t launched in the US years after it was first unveiled in 2019, and it may not meet Australian safety standards if it does.
Toyota has teased the possibility of launching hybrid SUVs and low-emission cars within the next two years, but so far they’ve largely avoided the battery EV market.
Battery technology currently limits the load and range of cars, limiting potential adoption. While EVs have power to spare, their range can be drastically reduced when heavily loaded.
Costs are also still high in the early adopter phase of the EV revolution, with vehicles often costing double their conventionally powered equivalent.
Australian company ACE has been developing its Yewt ute for several years and is now taking orders, but admits it has limited capacities and is more suited to light deliveries than heavy traditional work.
The Chinese-made LDV eT60 is currently the only electric car on the market in Australia and was featured in a recent photoshoot with Labor energy minister Chris Bowen (pictured)
Australian company ACE has been developing its Yewt ute (pictured) for several years, but it has limited capabilities and is more suited to light deliveries than heavy traditional work
The range would be under 200 km with only a partial charge. It takes seven seconds to reach 50 km/h, with a maximum speed of 100 km/h and a maximum load of 500 kg.
Chinese company Rivian also has a right-hand drive car in the works, but the left-hand version on sale in the US carries a hefty $104,000 price tag. An Australian model will probably be even more expensive.
The CEO of MTAA told Daily Mail Australia that he had stressed to Mr Bowen that the Australian car industry was unique and needed a uniquely Australian solution.
Australia is not Europe. We are not America. We’re not even comparable to much of Canada,” Mr Gwilym said after meeting the minister in Canberra to launch the strategy.
“What we can’t afford is to pick up a fuel emissions standard from another country and assume it just fits Australia.
“The largest sector of vehicles that we buy is all-wheel drive and SUVs. We are relatively unique, we certainly do not resemble Europe.
“That means if you set standards – and people want to drive those kinds of cars – you have to make sure people don’t have to squeeze themselves out of a big SUV or four-wheel drive into a very small Euro four. -seater you can’t get a case of cherries in.’
Even the lure of electric vehicles’ cheaper running costs and near-zero maintenance costs is being dismissed as a temptation for car owners, a recent study found.
While the HiLux and Ranger are the best-selling cars in Australia, other cars – including petrol or diesel – are much cheaper to run, but less popular.
Ute Beauty’s research found that motorists could collectively reduce 436,600 tons of CO2 emissions and save $210 million in fuel costs over five years if they traded in their current cars for the most fuel-efficient model on the market.
Elon Musk’s much-hyped Tesla Cybertruck (pictured) still hasn’t launched in the US years after it was first unveiled in 2019 and may not meet Australian safety standards if it does
The report named the 2022 Mazda BT-50 Dual Cab and 2015 Nissan Navara D23 as the most efficient vehicles in Australia, with the Mazda spewing out 20 percent less pollution than its Mitsubishi equivalent.
This research shows that more efficient options are available, meaning lower gas bills for households as well as lower emissions,” said Dr. Jennifer Rayner of the Climate Council.
“But the popularity of really big, really expensive cars like the HiLux suggests that Australians don’t always put petrol or emissions first when buying new vehicles.”
New car buyers are currently limited to about eight electric vehicle models in Australia – with Tesla easily dominating the market.
But foreign buyers currently have a much wider variety of EVs available to them with models from VW, Ford, Honda and others who haven’t yet seen Down Under.
“The cheapest electric car here is around $42,000 so that needs to change too,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told Daily Mail Australia.
“The new government policy is aimed at ensuring that manufacturers open up the Australian market to the same low emission and EV options that the rest of the world gets.”
The workhorse of the faithful tradition, the Toyota HiLux (pictured) has been Australia’s best-selling vehicle since 2016
Close behind the Toyota HiLux, the Ford Ranger (pictured) was the country’s biggest seller in March
Australia is one of only four countries that do not yet have fuel emission standards enshrined in law, alongside Russia, Indonesia and Japan.
The proposed new standards are also expected to lead to improved fuel efficiency in conventional petrol and diesel cars.
New cars in Australia currently consume 40 percent more fuel than the European Union, 20 percent more than the United States and 15 percent more than New Zealand.
The government emphasizes that the legislation only applies to new cars and not with retroactive effect to existing vehicles.
The new proposals were launched in Canberra last month and Mr Bowen stressed: ‘Transport is Australia’s third largest source of emissions.
This strategy will help reduce our emissions by at least 3 million tons of carbon by 2030 and more than 10 million tons by 2035.
“Australian governments, car manufacturers, car clubs, climate groups, businesses and unions were all on board to get cleaner and cheaper cars to Australia.”
But the strategy was labeled a “feel-good cash splash” by the Australian Taxpayers Alliance, which said it ignores the diesel trucks and buses that cause the most pollution.
“It is a plan to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles for wealthy Australians at the expense of the everyday taxpayer,” a spokesman said.
“The government’s plan will have little effect on the price of electric vehicles, and there is little evidence that it will do much to reduce carbon emissions.”
But Mr Bowen insisted: ‘This strategy delivers on our promise to give Australians more choice to drive cars that are cleaner and cheaper to drive.
“This strategy provides the coordination and leadership to reduce costs and improve infrastructure so we can bring more affordable and accessible EVs to the market.”
The NRMA welcomed the new policy plan, stressing that Australia is only at the beginning of the EV revolution and will take years to catch up with the rest of the developed world.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be,” said Mr. Khoury. “As a nation, we’ve only really started expanding the EV network in recent years.
‘We still have a long way to go, especially in the region.
“We’re not even close to giving people the feeling of security and certainty they want when they’re going to buy an electric car.
‘We must continue to invest in charging infrastructure to give people the confidence that they will not get stranded.’