An online rally of nearly 200 voters was held today to discuss the finer points of why Australian states such as Victoria, South Australia and NSW should not introduce a proposed EV tax.
News broke in late 2020 that several states would consider introducing a road user tax for electric vehicles, a move that was quickly condemned as premature in a country where less than 1% of cars are run purely by electricity.
However, Victoria has already gone so far as to propose a pricing mechanism for an EV tax despite being warned an EV tax would impact uptake. It will charge electric car owners 2.5 cents per kilometre and plug-in hybrid owners 2 cents per kilometre driven.
At the online event today organised by SolarCitizens, an advocacy group that supporte renewables and EVs, attendees were encouraged to contact their local members to express their opposition to such a tax.
“We want to see clean transport in this country, transport that won’t drive climate change and pollute our cities,” said Ellen Roberts, national director for Solar Citizens.
Hundreds of Electric Vehicle and renewable energy supporters are currently calling their MPs not to support a new tax on EVs and letting their member know that Electric vehicles are the future!
Join us in calling your MP 👇https://t.co/XeJvx5KoUT #stopthecleanairtax
— Solar Citizens (@solarcitizens) February 9, 2021
“Victoria is usually so progressive,” said Electric Vehicle Council CEO Behyad Jafari, noting that transport is the second-highest source of carbon emissions based on Victoria 2018 data.
“The really bad news is that emissions are actually going up …. we should not be talking about how to make [EVs] more expensive.”
"you don't need to be a climate scientist to know you can't hit net zero if emissions keep going up!"…"the do-nothing approach is not working"
– Behyad Jafari from @EVCouncil speaking at our rally to #stopthecleanairtax on why supporting Electric Vehicles is so necessary pic.twitter.com/tf5WO9VanM— Solar Citizens (@solarcitizens) February 9, 2021
Jafari also said that the argument other jurisdictions might be considering road user taxes (such as in the US) ignored the fact those regions were already far ahead in terms of EV adoption.
Additionally, they were also counteracting the extra cost of road user charges with incentives to buy EVs: such as in California, where federal and state incentives amount to an equivalent of around $A15,000.
Nissan Leaf owner John Pye described how the introduction of a tax would have second-guessed his decision to buy the secondhand Leaf, which cost them just $18,000.
“We live in the country, and bought our second hand Leaf with 120km range,” he said. “That challenges a lot of ideas about what electric cars should actually be …. but most of our driving is within 50km radius of our town store.”
🧔John Pye is an a regular aussie who also proudly owns an Electric Vehicle🚗
"we chose an electric car, we live in the country and we chose a second-hand Nissan Leaf"
John knows how harmful a tax on EVs will be, thats why we need to #stopthecleanairtax pic.twitter.com/vsY41yI0A4— Solar Citizens (@solarcitizens) February 9, 2021
“Road user charges is the wrong policy, we should be encouraging the [adoption of EVs],” he said.
Pye closed by calling his local member’s office during the event to say that an EV tax is “a tax for the future, not for now.”
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.