Within five years,25 per cent of vehicles would be electric vehicles,FCAI’s submission said. Their paper anticipated that by the end of this decade,petrol and diesel car sales would plummet to 18 per cent of the market,while clean cars,including fully electric and hybrid vehicles,would rise to 82 per cent.
“It’s up to FCAI to explain the clear contradiction in their two positions,” Bowen said.
“It’s disappointing that the car lobby has joined with Dutton to avoid bringing fuel-saving choices to Australians that they supply in 85 per cent of the global new car market and keeping ripping Australians off with less efficient vehicles.”
Weber conceded his claim of $38 billion of additional costs was from “a very simple analysis” and said manufacturers would bring a range of cleaner models to the market in coming years.
However,he argued it highlighted the challenges of bringing cleaner cars to the market.
“We’re not saying that[sales from] 2023 will be replicated. We’re just saying that if it was replicated,this is what the cost would be,” Weber said. “There will be more technologies coming into the market and they will have a significant impact in certain segments and less significant impacts in others.”
Dutton claimed that Australia already has “some of the highest efficiency standards in the world in terms of our vehicles”. However,Australia,along with Russia,is the last advanced economy to impose a fuel efficiency standard. The policy has been applied to most major car markets for decades,covering about 85 per cent of global car sales.
”Dutton and the multibillion-dollar car companies need to explain why they think Australians should be paying 15 per cent to 40 per cent more for fuel on average than new car buyers in the US,New Zealand and Europe,” Bowen said.
The government’s impact analysis of the policy prepared by the government says the price of cars will not rise when the fuel efficiency standard is introduced,pointing to similar jurisdictions such as the United States,the European Union and New Zealand.
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The cost of utes is a high-stakes political battle. The top three selling cars in 2023 were higher-emissions utes – the Ford Ranger,Toyota Hilux and Isuzu Ute D-Max – and it remains to be seen if carmakers can offset their emissions with clean vehicles.
Plumber and small-business owner Anthony Butler,who buys utes for his three workers,said any price increase would be concerning.
“Money’s tight with everyone and it would mean we would need to increase our costs and pass it on to the client,” he said.
Butler is not opposed to owning an electric ute. If electric models were sold in Australia he said he would need to ensure they could meet the demand of his job.
“The concern with going to electric vehicles would be either draining the battery or them not having the power to actually drive around safely,” he said.
“I’d then have to potentially pay them back for their electricity use,which could get very messy on working out how much they’re charging[and] when they’re charging. How do we split that up?”
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