The Coalition's scare campaign against electric vehicles (EVs) is hypocritical and Luddite but the bright side is it might, at long last, start a meaningful debate about the role the transport sector can play in cutting carbon emissions.
The Coalition has gone in with all guns blazing over the past week after the ALP announced that as part of its climate change policy it had a target that 50 per cent of new cars sold in Australia would be electric by 2030.
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To be fair, both parties have form when it comes to scare campaigns, such as the ALP's 'Mediscare' campaign before the 2016 election.
But scare campaigns work best if they are consistent and the Coalition has just chucked a screeching U-turn on this issue. Until a few weeks ago many prominent Coalition ministers thought EVs were just great and were posing to be photographed driving them and stroking their paintwork.
The Coalition has defended its sudden negative reaction to the ALP's policy by arguing that it still likes EVs but it disagrees with the ALP's targets which it says are too ambitious. In fact, the targets are quite cautious and roughly in line with the government's position until two weeks ago. When Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced a $6 million fund to promote EVs last year he released a study based on targets similar to the ALP's.
It is certainly true that EVs imply a huge shift for the transport sector but many of the Coalition's warnings about how this will affect people's lives ignore how fast world markets and technology are changing.
Even under the ALP plan, Australia would be well behind other countries. About half of Norway's new cars are already electric, in California 10 per cent and China's sales grew 175 per cent last year to about 5 per cent of the total.
The Coalition is now complaining about how long EVs take to charge and how short their driving range is. But the huge car companies such as Toyota and General Motors are developing solutions. Indeed, the Herald on Wednesday profiled the technology of an Australian EV company called Tritium which is leading the way.
While the Coalition has warned about the end of the iconic tradesman's utility vehicle, Toyota has said it expects to release within six years an electric replacement for its best-selling HiLux, complete with the same rear trays for tradies' kelpie dogs to jump on to.
Because EVs are a little more expensive than petrol now, most of the countries with high EV sales have relied on subsidies to encourage their use. The ALP's plan considers tax breaks for EVs and tighter standards on emissions. But the cost of EVs is falling quickly with mass production and studies suggest drivers of EVs can recoup the up-front cost by saving on petrol. While EVs will increase demand for electricity, most drivers will mostly charge the batteries of their EVs at off-peak times when electricity is abundant and cheap.
Australia's debate on climate change has, until now, focused almost exclusively on the electricity sector but if Australia is to meet its emission reductions targets under the Paris treaty it will have to achieve similar cuts in transport which account for about 20 per cent of all emissions. Achieving this reduction will require not just a switch to EVs but also a shift to electric buses and better public transport.
Links
- The fear campaign about electric cars has hit a new level of utter shamelessness
- Here’s Why Electric Cars Have Plenty Of Grunt, Oomph And Torque
- Electric Cars Can Clean Up The Mining Industry – Here’s How
- Poll Shows 50% Of Australians Support Shifting All Sales Of New Cars To Electric Vehicles By 2025
- Coalition Hits Bottom Of Barrel With Fake News Campaign Against Electric Cars
- Electric Vehicles An Opportunity For Local Government
- 'Ultra Rapid' Electric Car Charging Network Coming To Australia
- One Million Electric Cars By 2030? You're Dreaming Without Big Spending
- Not So Fast: Why The Electric Vehicle Revolution Will Bring Problems Of Its Own
- Electric Vehicles No 'Silver Bullet' For Climate Change: Environment Commissioner
- Stuck In First Gear: How Australia's Electric Car Revolution Stalled
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