“Transport and fuel costs are a big proportion of the average household budget – we can and should give households more choice to be able to bring those costs down – that’s exactly what efficiency standards do,” Bowen said.
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The departmental analysis also lays bare the limited choice Australian motorists face compared with overseas counterparts when purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles.
It shows Australians have access to fewer than 100 of the more than 500 globally available electrical vehicles and plug-in hybrid models. Of the 10 most fuel-efficient cars available in Europe,seven are not available in Australia,while 40 of the 50 most fuel-efficient cars available in Germany cannot be purchased here.
“Putting a standard across an average fleet,it really requires the manufacturers to send us more of their more efficient cars,that inevitably leads to more choice,including at the more affordable end of the spectrum,” Bowen said.
“There are lots of very efficient cars overseas,whether they be EVs or hybrids or new model petrol,which are at the more affordable end of the range. We’re missing out on those choices.”
The federal opposition has seized on claims by the FCAI and some carmakers to mount a campaign that the government’s plan amounts to a “new ute tax and new family car tax” and would add thousands of dollars to the price of a new car.
“If somebody wants to go and buy a D-Max,or they want to go and buy a LandCruiser,or BT-50,or a HiLux,or a Ranger,whatever it might be,the government shouldn’t be applying a new tax to those vehicles to make it look more attractive to buy an electric vehicle,” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said after visiting a Toyota dealership in Perth last week.
Toyota,which was the top-selling car marker in Australia in 2023 with more than 215,000 vehicles sold,has urged the Albanese government to slow the pace of newcar emissions standards. In a statement last month,it said the prospect of financial penalties from as soon as January 2025 could lead “to price rises or companies rationalising their product offerings”.
Independent experts at the Grattan Institute think tank have rejected claims the changes will drastically increase consumer prices,citing their analysis showing the average new car price would rise by as little as 1 per cent – or $500.
The heated political debate has triggered a split among car manufacturers,with electric vehicle maker Polestar last week joining Tesla in resigning from the FCAI in protest against what it says is a deliberate campaign to slow the shift to electric cars and weaken new pollution limits.
Tesla accused the FCAI of making “demonstrably false” claims that the scheme would significantly drive up the price of cars for Australian consumers,while Polestar said the lobby group’s commentary may have “irrevocably damaged consumer perception and trust in the proposed policy”. The EV companies stand to benefit under the scheme by selling credits for their cleaner fleet onto manufacturers of fuel-driven cars trying to meet the emissions caps.
Other manufacturers including Hyundai,Kia and Volkswagen have thrown their support behind the scheme.
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The FCAI has said that while it supports the introduction of a fuel efficiency standard,it opposes the government’s preferred approach “to impose a FES with extremely aggressive targets and severe penalties,to be effective on very short notice”.
Bowen said the FCAI’s claims “did not stack up”,arguing that the FCAI “has a voluntary fuel efficiency standard which is stricter in the first year than ours is”.
“Consultation has closed. We’ll consider sensible good faith suggestions ... but we’re not going to entertain suggestions in which really people are saying ‘we support a fuel efficiency standard as long as it doesn’t work’,” Bowen said.