Roadblocks remain for Aussie EV drivers despite sales rising

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Electric vehicle sales are surging to record highs, driven by new brands and more affordable prices that are prompting more Australians to ditch petrol, but experts warn that roadblocks remain.

Transcript

00:00EV sales are increasing. Now, in June, we saw those sales hit a record high of 10.3%.

00:12So that's 10.3% of all new vehicle sales in Australia. And if you include plug-in hybrid

00:19models, you can take that up to 15%. So that's very positive for the take-up of EVs and reducing

00:29emissions. But still a long way to go, of course. And how low are prices? And are they

00:36going to fall further? Well, at the moment, you can get a new EV. The cheapest you can get is about

00:42$30,000, a little under $30,000. That's not including road costs. Now, industry figures

00:49that we've spoken to said you can get a reasonably decent second-hand EV for about $15,000. But of

00:57course, that is still high for many consumers. And there is a bit of a debate about whether

01:03some of those more mid-range EVs, so EVs priced about $50,000 to $60,000, are as a good quality

01:11as some of the internal combustion engine vehicles out there. But the good news is that competition

01:18is increasing here. Now, Australia has long been the dumping ground for high emissions

01:26vehicles. But after years of debate, this year, we finally adopted the new vehicle emission

01:35standards. The federal government implemented those this year. And while, of course, there

01:39has been a lot of criticism about whether those emission standards are strong enough, what industry

01:45observers are telling us is that from this month, car makers are going to be subject to penalties.

01:53So, basically, if they don't meet the emission, or if they exceed, rather, the emissions caps

02:00for the fleet of vehicles they sell in Australia every year, that they'll be hit with penalties.

02:07Now, those penalties will ramp up over the next few years. And what industry figures such as

02:13Giles Parkinson, who is the founder of The Driven, have told us is that basically what this policy

02:21does is that it acts as an incentive for these car makers that continue to sell internal combustion

02:29engine vehicles to shift their own EVs and hybrids at a lower cost.

02:36If they don't meet those sales numbers or those emissions standard, and it's an average, it's

02:42not applied to each individual car. It's an average over a year. If they don't meet that

02:46average, then they have to pay another car maker credits. And they'd rather keep the money

02:50to themselves. And even if they have to take a bit of a loss on their own car, they'd probably

02:54prefer to get that out of the door.

02:56So, Rihanna, experts are warning about roadblocks. What are the barriers?

02:59Yeah, that's right. Now, any EV driver out there will no doubt say that while there might be

03:07more charging infrastructure out there, it's not necessarily reliable. You don't necessarily

03:12know where it is. And basically, we don't have a consistent strategy to that. We still don't

03:18have a national charging infrastructure plan. So, that means that there is a patchwork of charging

03:25stations around the country. And that sometimes the power supply can be either too low, meaning

03:33it takes a longer time to charge your vehicle. Now, another potential problem for the EV market

03:43is looming taxes. So, there is talk of a road user tax for electric vehicles to replace the

03:52fuel excise. Now, many industry figures say that that is something that is inevitable, that it is

03:58fair that all vehicle owners will have to pay to use the road. There's also talk of a review of the

04:06fringe benefits tax exemption for EVs, which has been credited as driving sales of those vehicles.

04:15Let's have a listen to Scott Maynard. He is the managing director of Polestar, which is one of the

04:23Chinese brands that's eyeing off the Australian market.

04:27That's an exemption that's been afforded to those vehicles since 1986 and cost taxpayers billions of

04:32dollars. It makes far more sense to put those subsidies against vehicles that are going to create

04:38cleaner air, help our health and also put vehicles in the hands of customers that are cheaper to get

04:44into and cheaper to own. So, positive signs for the EV market, but still roadblocks ahead.

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