This is a slightly edited version of a piece originally published on SmartCompany.
Federal Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has been named and shamed by a fellow MP for incorrectly saying there are no electric utes on the market, something the Electric Vehicle Council’s CEO slammed as a “monumental blunder” on Ley’s part.
Ley, who is also opposition spokesperson for small business as well as industry, skills and trade, was speaking to Sky News‘ Chris Kenny about this week’s highly anticipated jobs and skills summit when she made the erroneous claim.
“You take the jobs summit — the dealers and motor trade association didn’t get an invitation. Tesla did. And there are 20 million cars that run on the internal combustion in Australia today.
“And these are workers and trades that keep people safe on the roads and we value what they do out here in regional Australia because we know we’re not going to have electric vehicles tomorrow.
“And no one in the world is making an electric ute, by the way, and even if they were, it would be unaffordable.
“So you’ve got this whole sector that is completely being overlooked.”
Independent Sophie Scamps, who is the member for Mackellar, tweeted Ley’s incorrect claim and went on to detail several electric utes on the market, including a slew of models on the way to Australia shores.
“This is the electric version of the Ford Lightning Ute — best seller in the US — already making deliveries in the US,” Scamps wrote.
EV Council CEO Behyad Jafari says it’s a testament to the groundswell of anticipation for EVs in Australia that so many social media pundits, including elected officials, were quick to jump on Ley’s false claim.
“It’s a monumental blunder of the part of Ms Ley. A quick Google search immediately shows you a whole range of electric ute options,” Jafari told SmartCompany.
“There’s a wide variety of electric ute models already being manufactured all over the world by a range of major automotive companies.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Ley said she had meant to say something a little different.
“The point Ms Ley was seeking to make is that EV utes are not yet commercially available in Australia,” the spokesperson said.
“And even if EV utes arrived here overnight, cost-effective models (which invariably have lower distance ranges) are not yet suitable for practical use in rural and regional Australia.”
Jafari continued that the EV Council held an EV summit just last week that spruiked what’s to come for the Australian car market, noting that neither Ley nor any Coalition invitee attended.
Head of policy for the EV Council Jake Whitehead toured several electric utes on a recent trip to California, including “the all electric Ford F150 Lightning and its Megafrunk”.
“With pulling power of a truck but the acceleration of a performance car. The ability to power your home and work site. Serious offroading capabilities,” he wrote.
Scamps replied to her own tweet with an ad from Rivian for the R1T vehicle, which starts at US$73,000, and an article from Cars Guide that details eight different models of electric utes headed for Australian shores.
Ley may not have been aware of Rivian, but it seems many others were: the wait list stretches into 2023, according to The Driven, with Australia likely to get the Amazon-backed electric ute in 2024.
Scamps also posted the LDV EV T60, which has “already been launched in New Zealand [but is] not available here because of scare campaign run by the previous government and bc Australia has amongst the world’s worst fuel efficiency standards”, she wrote.
Independent for Bradfield Nicolette Boele jumped in on Scamp’s Twitter thread too, saying she was driving an electric van at that very moment.
“And if anyone within coo-ee of Turramurra, NSW wants to test drive this Peugeot e-Expert commercial fully electric van with 5.3m3 cargo bay please message me. On loan from @thegoodcarco for the next few weeks,” she wrote.
The Good Car Company was co-founded by Anton Vikstrom, Anthony Broese van Groenou, and Sam Whitehead in 2020, with the startup working towards a subscription model where it will loan out used electric vehicles.
At the moment, the company imports used Nissan Leafs from Japan (available for purchase from the site), while also running regular EV bulk buys, where people who want to transition to electric can order their vehicle through a bulk buying model.
The next bulk buy will launch September 18 in partnership with Randwick City Council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
“We have stringent criteria for our customer’s cars,” said Whitehead.
“Range anxiety and battery degradation are key questions for anyone purchasing an electric vehicle. We offer our customers a good quality product, and we make sure that is what they get.”
Hughes independent candidate Georgia Steele replied to Scamp’s tweet with “Hope it’s not spoiling your weekend”, a reference to then prime minister Scott Morrison infamously declaring that electric vehicles would “end the weekend”.
Jafari says the EV Council has run numerous surveys showing comments like Ley’s and Morrison’s were out of step with what the majority of Australians want from a car — as long as the price is right and charging stations are abundant, that is.
“For people saying stupid things like this, the world has moved on and Australians are enthusiastic about EVs so they might need to spend a bit more time learning about the technology and improving their language on it,” he said.
“The country is very far away from the silly games [the Coalition] have played on these issues.”
