The federal government has released its first electric vehicle strategy and outlined how it plans to remove barriers to buying EVs.
The three focus areas for the government are the supply of EVs, the systems and infrastructure needed to support uptake, and demand from drivers for them.
According to the strategy, there are six expected outcomes — a greater choice of EVs, a reduction in transport emissions, increasing ease of charging EVs nationally, an increase in local manufacturing and recycling of materials, making EVs more affordable and making it cheaper for people to run their vehicles.
As expected the other key pillar of the strategy is the plan to introduce a fuel efficiency standard, which requires car makers to meet certain emissions limits for their entire fleet or else face penalties.
The idea of the standard is that it then encourages car makers to sell EVs or more fuel-efficient vehicles to remain under the limit.
"The government will work in consultation with stakeholders on the design of a Fuel Efficiency Standard for passenger and light commercial vehicles that is broadly consistent with standards in place in major advanced markets and make a strong contribution to meeting our emission reduction goals," the strategy said.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said Australia and Russia were the only two developed countries without standards.
"It's years overdue for Australia … there'll be detailed consultation on design and how it interacts with other policies," he said.
"Fuel efficiency standards are an important step forward for our country and this commits the Albanese government to developing them."
Mr Bowen said the government had not included a target for the increase in EV uptake, saying instead the government wanted to improve the choice of EVs on offer to Australians and make prices more competitive.
Australia 'behind the eight ball' on standards
Behyad Jafari, from the Electric Vehicle Council, said the standards were a crucial part of increasing the number of EVs that car-makers send to Australia.
"The situation that we're in today is that there are hundreds of thousands of Australians who are trying to buy electric vehicles but the supply isn't there, and that's because car companies … choose to sell those vehicles in other markets because they have those standards in place," he said.
"We are way behind the eight ball on this issue so it's important that … we put [the standards] into place early.
Mr Jafari said one car company sent 750 of its EVs to Australia last year, and had 30,000 people express interest in buying them.
"So getting more EVs to the people who want to buy them is the lowest-hanging fruit for us in order to start shifting our market."
The Australian Automobile Association (AAA), the peak motoring body, welcomed the decision to develop an efficiency standard but said more thought was needed on what the government would do as revenue from the fuel excise declined with the uptake in EVs.
"Roads don’t build themselves. It is critical that the transition to low and zero emissions technology includes a serious plan to secure solid funding streams for road construction and maintenance into the future," AAA managing director Michael Bradley said.
"The AAA believes electric and other zero-emission vehicles should be brought into the tax system as soon as possible, but initially at a discounted rate to avoid disincentivising take-up."
The strategy said the government would continue to monitor how a decrease in petrol consumption would impact the budget and the need for any future road user charge to replace the excise.
Aside from the efficiency standard, the bulk of the strategy relies on existing initiatives, programs or policy like the electric car discount, already-announced plans to upgrade charging infrastructure and the reconstruction fund which will boost local manufacturing.
The strategy does include new initiatives to better enable charging networks for people living in apartment buildings, a "national mapping tool" to identify where charging stations are most needed, training on EVs for emergency service workers and preparing recycling systems to reuse EV batteries and other components of the vehicles.
There will be a major review of the strategy, which you can read in full here, in 2026.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the government had missed an opportunity to include a target for both the uptake of EVs and a phase-out date for petrol and diesel vehicles.
"Until we have targets and strong fuel efficiency standards we will continue to be a dumping ground for dirty, inefficient cars," he said.
"The Greens want a commitment to phase out new sales of petrol and diesel cars over this decade and fuel efficiency standards at least as strong as in Europe."
