NRMA says Australia must embrace EV transition, or become dumping ground

The head of the NRMA Roland Lund says the nation’s motoring clubs want to embrace the electric vehicle transition, but says there is a lot of confusion among members about charging infrastructure, EV costs and supplies, and range anxiety.

Lund, speaking to The Driven podcast a week after the NRMA had teamed up with other motoring clubs to take full control of the country’s biggest fasts-charging network provider Chargefox, says motoring clubs are now used to the idea that the world is going electric, one way or another.

“Historically, motoring clubs around the world have been quite terrified of the electric transition,” Lund told The Driven podcast. “And that’s because they’ve relied on the fact mechanical repair is is a key part of their businesses and electric cars don’t have mechanical parts. But I think that’s changed in recent years.

“I think as auto clubs have become more mature and understanding that they’re really there just to serve their members, they realise there’s an inevitability that their members will be driving electric cars.”

Lund says the transition to EVs will be as dramatic as the transition from the horse and cart, from the motoring clubs emerged.

“Then, over a decade, everyone changed to cars. And I think with this transition, there’s a multitude of things that people are going to need help with that transition. And in the next decade, people are gonna have a lot of questions. There’s, there’s a lot of confusion. That’s why the clubs were born a century ago.  So I think they’ve got a big role to play.

Lund remembers his own experience, having been a strong advocate for government policies that would support and guide the transition to EVs, fearful that Australia would be left behind and become a dumping crowd for dirty and inefficient cars, something that has already happened.

“Five years ago, I was advocating and jumping up and down and getting cranky with government, that it wasn’t moving fast enough. And I had plenty of angry letters from members saying, ‘Why are you talking about electric cars? This is ridiculous.

“Five years on, we really don’t see that anymore. What we see is a lot of confusion, and a lot of misinformation where members are asking us what we think.

“And I think the fear they have at the moment is, obviously range anxiety has been has been around, but there’s just not enough charging infrastructure, particularly for regional remote areas in Australia and across highways.

“And supply is a monstrous issue. We’re excited to talk about EVs but the reality is, you can’t get your hands on one.  NRMA owns a big car rental business with Sixt. And we’re constantly fighting to try and get more supply into Australia.

“And it’s not surprising that Australia gets de-prioritised at the moment versus other markets, because we’ve made it so hard for people to bring EVs here.  That’s a real challenge. And members want to talk about that. And they want to understand why there’s so much more expensive in Australia than other markets.”

Lund says he is not normally in favour of government intervention, but says policies need to be more progressive” otherwise Australia will miss out.

“I said five or six years ago publicly that if Australia doesn’t put in a deadline, we would become a dumping ground for petrol and diesel cars. And, and the reason I said that was because you end up with an environment where in every other country, if they’re doing it, they’re putting the incentives in place.

“And if we don’t, then it’s inevitable that the manufacturers see us as the market to start moving those vehicles too. And you’re not able to get to the front of the queue in terms of EVs.

“So normally I’d prefer not to see intervention of that kind, but I don’t know how we avoid those issues, come 2030, 2035 if we’re the only country that’s not (with a phase out policy).”

Lund is seeking to address the charging infrastructure issue by using its vast capital base with other road clubs to fund the doubling of fast-chargers within the Chargefox network over the next three years, and then boost them again.

“Even with that number, we’re still talking about a tiny fraction of what’s going to be needed.,” Lund says. “There’s a long way to go in terms of what it would need to actually meet the needs of the number of drivers in about 10 years time.

NRMA will continue to roll out its own branded network of fast chargers, as opposed to the ultra fast chargers of Chargefox, which have been free for all to use. But not for much longer.

Lund says pricing for non NRMA members will be introduced some time within the next year. The deal for NRMA members is still to be decided. “Ultimately, the plan there is if you’re an NRMA member, whether that’s free or whether that’s at a small cost, that’s something that we will will always maintain for members.”

Hear the full interview, including comments about NRMA drive days, the changing role of NRMA road side assistance, and Lund’s own search for an electric people mover (he has six kids): The Driven Podcast: NRMA charges into the EV transition