Climate and transport advocates say the Albanese government’s showpiece electric vehicle strategy has achieved little and remains “hamstrung” six months after its release as the industry continues to wait for details of a fuel efficiency standard.
In mid-April, the government unveiled what was Australia’s first national electric vehicle strategy, which included ideas to support investment in charging infrastructure, guidance for apartment-dwellers wanting to own EVs and recycling programs for large batteries.
The strategy did not include targets for EV uptake or details of a fuel efficiency standard.
Instead, the government began a consultation period to develop Australia’s fuel efficiency standard – something neglected by the Coalition but first flagged by the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, in August 2022.
Fuel efficiency standards set by governments create a cap for emissions across a manufacturer’s overall sales. This provides an incentive for carmakers to supply low- and zero-emissions vehicles and penalises companies that do not.
This August, the government revealed that the introduction of a fuel efficiency standard had been “overwhelmingly” supported throughout public consultation.
However, the path to legislating the standard and giving enough notice ahead of its start date has some worried there might be a rush to implement it before the next federal election.
Dr Jennifer Rayner, the head of advocacy at the Climate Council, said the organisation was “surprised to see the policy discussion take this long”.
“It’s great to see the government is speaking to stakeholders, but fundamentally [fuel efficiency standards] are in place in 85% of the world’s car market, it should not be this complicated to design one for Australia,” she said.
“There are about a million cars sold each year in Australia, most of them petrol cars, so the longer we wait, the longer we are seeing dirtier, more expensive to run cars come on to our roads.”
Guardian Australia understands details of the proposed standard are expected in coming weeks. The policy is seen as a key part of Australia achieving its 2030 target of reducing emissions by 43% from 2005 levels.
While charging infrastructure and funding measures had allowed some progress in the six months since the government’s EV strategy was released, Rayner said the fuel efficiency standard was fundamental.
“The rest of the strategy is hamstrung until we have the fuel efficiency standard in place,” Rayner said.
Australia’s lack of a fuel efficiency standard has led to local EV supply issues. The industry reports new electric cars often sell out within hours of coming on the market.
The Electric Vehicle Council has said manufacturers are diverting more EVs away from Australia to not miss out on incentives available in other right-hand drive countries with standards. As a result, the council has accused car manufacturers of “dumping” the most polluting, expensive-to-run cars in the Australian market.
Richard Savoie, the chief executive of transport logistics firm Adiona Tech, said the lack of a standard was causing uncertainty and preventing transport companies from investing in electric trucks and buses. He noted the EV strategy from April did not focus on commercial fleets.
“There are bus operators that would love to invest in low- and zero-emissions buses, but they’re afraid to invest in a fleet,” he said.
“Regulation changes like this don’t happen overnight, and even after a standard is proposed, it will take time to come up with agreement, and years to implement.”
In the absence of progress on a fuel efficiency standard and states introducing road user charges and winding back EV rebates, Savoie said Australia had “gone backwards” in the past six months when it came to decarbonising road transport.
Behyad Jafari, the Electric Vehicle Council’s chief executive, said the fuel efficiency standard was “a fundamental piece that informs all the other work” of the electric vehicle strategy.
“The fuel efficiency standard will tell us what Australia is hoping to achieve, and the strategy [already released in April] tells us how we go about achieving those things.”
Jafari said he believed the government was taking its time to properly consult. While not criticising it for doing so, he said that “I’d like them to move faster”.
“We will now need it to pass parliament and be put in place very quickly. The concern isn’t that we’ll become a dumping ground for expensive cars, we already are one,” Jafari said. “We need an ambitious standard to catch up with the world.”
The transport minister, Catherine King, was contacted for comment.
