“Myopic and dogmatic:” Morrison blamed for lack of electric vehicles

The peak body for electric vehicles in Australia has blamed the Morrison government’s “myopia” and “dogma” for making the Australian market so unattractive that many EV makers are deliberately sending their electric car offerings to other markets.

As The Driven has reported, demand for EVs in Australia is far outstripping supply, with many customers of newly released vehicles told that they will have to wait months, or even years, to secure their preferred model. Again, the country’s lack of vehicle emissions standards is being blamed.

“Because the Morrison Government’s refuses to introduce the same fuel efficiency standards they have in the US and the UK Australians are being denied access to the electric cars they now desperately want — especially at the more affordable end of the market,” said Behyad Jafari, the the CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council.

“Carmakers look at Australia and see strong demand, which is encouraging. But they also realise that every time they sell an EV in America or Europe that will count toward meeting the fuel efficiency standards of those jurisdictions. So naturally they prefer to sell EVs there, instead of here.

The EVS released its latest “state of the market” which notes the trebling in EV sales in 2021, and a potential for substantial increases in 2022 which will fall short because of poor policies.

“Through a toxic combination of inertia, myopia, and dogma, the Morrison Government has created a situation where thousands of Australians can’t get access to the car they want to buy,” Jafari said.

“All over the world governments are recognising that most consumers want an electric option when they consider their next vehicle and they’re doing what they can to make that option viable.

“Australia remains a real outlier.”

The lack of the vehicle emissions or fuel efficiency standards comes at a huge cost to car owners in Australia, because it means – according to the government’s own figures – that annual fuel bills are around $600 a year higher than they should be.

And it also means that major car makers like VW are not bringing their best selling EVs to Australia because there is no incentive to do so. They’d rather focus on the markets where standards are applied. It is also cited by other car makers, including Hyundai and Kia, on why supplies of new award winning EVs like the Ioniq 5 and the EV6 are so low in Australia

The latest report confirms that sales of plug-in electric vehicles during 2021 reached 20,665, tripling from sales in 2020, and representing a 2% market share of all vehicle sales, as compared to only 0.78% in 2020.

Unsurprisingly, the Tesla Model 3 accounted for nearly 60% of all EV sales in Australia in 2021 with 12,094 models sold, with the next closest model being the MG ZS EV with only 1,388 models and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV with a measly 592 models sold.

According to the report, there are currently 30 EV models available in Australia including 65 variants, including 28 PHEVs and 37 BEVs. In the last six months, seven new BEV and PHEV models have been introduced to the Australian market, but while any growth is good, for comparison, the United Kingdom plays host to 120 BEV variants and 40 PHEV variants.

The Electric Vehicle Council’s State of Electric Vehicles report also highlighted the fact there are now 291 public fast charging locations around Australia, with another 700 additional fast charging locations to be deployed over the next five years thanks to state and federal government funding.

The past year saw several state and territory governments introduce new policies and incentives to support the uptake of EVs, which led to an increase in sales.

However, due to the fact that these policies were not introduced until late in 2021, the impact on total sales for the year was minimal and will only become truly apparent throughout 2022.

The Australia’s Capital Territory, the only market in Australia to have incentives in place throughout the entirety of 2021  performed the best proportionally, with 5% of all car sales being electric, while most other markets remained consistent with the national figure of 2%.

“It has been encouraging lately to see several state and territory governments introduce positive demand policies to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles for consumers,” said Jafari.

“But until the federal government comes to party consumer choice will continue to be throttled.

“If Australia continues to be one of the only developed nations without fuel efficiency standards then we will continue to be a dumping ground for the world’s dirtiest vehicles.”