Taylor pushes hybrids over battery electrics in “do nothing” transport policy

Energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor is trying to encourage Australians to choose hybrid vehicles over battery electric vehicles, in an extraordinary policy discussion paper that flies into the face of the rapid transition to EVs across the world.

Taylor formally released the government’s “future fuels” discussion paper on Friday morning (the minister could not even bring himself to use the words electric vehicles in the title).

It is largely based around the earlier leaked version revealed by The Driven and RenewEconomy in December, only this time accompanied by some contentious claims about emissions reductions and Taylor’s push for a hybrid-first transition.

Taylor makes it clear that there will be no federal government incentives for EVs, and not even any fuel emissions standards – leaving Australia as one of the only countries in the world without one.

(A proposal put forward a few years ago by then energy minister Josh Frydenberg was rapidly withdrawn when the Murdoch media slammed it as a “carbon tax on wheels, even though Australia’s luck of fuel standards means it has become a dumping ground for inefficient vehicles and Australians pay as much as $600 in extra fuel costs because of it).

Taylor echoes the fleet-first policy put forward by Labor last election, but insists that such fleets should transition through hybrids first, and then electric vehicles – even though many independent studies shows EVs are already competitive in leasing arrangements.

“My point about fleets is, that’s where the best value comes from moving to hybrids and ultimately electric vehicles, it’ll come there first,” Taylor said on ABC’s Radio National.

“And, you know, this will facilitate that uptake. But you know, throwing huge amounts of money when we could get data value for money elsewhere. And subsidies, I understand that industries, themselves, want them because they get the money they put in their pockets, it’s understandable. But the truth is our job as a government is to make sure we get value for money.”

The discussion paper drew a withering response from the EV industry, and EV advocates. The Electric Vehicle Council described it as a “flaccid, do nothing” policy that went agains the grain of developments overseas.

“Global leaders from (Joe) Biden to Boris (Johnson) are rushing to accelerate their transition to electric vehicles, but Angus Taylor reckons he knows something they don’t,” EVC chief executive Behyad Jafari said.