Car prices won’t go up under Labor’s new fuel efficiency standards, Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.
Transport Minister Catherine King and Mr Bowen unveiled the government’s final plans for new vehicle rules on Tuesday, which will be introduced to the House on Wednesday.
Under the fuel-efficiency laws, penalties for exceeding emission targets will be paused for the first six months of its operation.
But they will still seek to reduce emissions from passenger cars by 61 per cent by 2029, while relaxing proposed emission cuts for light commercial vehicles, including utes.
Asked if it was inevitable that the cost for some cars would increase, Mr Bowen said that hadn’t happened in any other country in the world.
“It wasn’t the case with the model that we’ve put out, it’s not the case that with the model that we adopted yesterday,” he told ABC’s RN on Wednesday.
The energy minister said the government would be introducing its proposal to parliament.
“We have landed on a good model which we’ll put to the parliament and I am relatively confident we can pass,” he said.
Mr Bowen said Labor didn’t have a particular target for the sale of electric vehicles.
“We have a determination to give Australians more choices,” he said.
Industry groups have largely backed the introduction of the standard, which they say is necessary to lower the nation’s transport pollution.
AAP
