Tesla Model 3 charging. Source: Unsplash – Jannis Lucas
Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council is calling for a strong and transparent vehicle efficiency standard and is urging the government to set strong targets to ensure that Australia catches up with the other major world markets before 2030.
The EVC is also calling on the government to resist to making concessions proposed by petrol and diesel car lobby groups, including the creation of “credits”, and also wants it to develop an independent source of new vehicle data to be managed by the government.
The EVC published the key recommendations from its vehicle efficiency standard submission this week and will make its full submission to the government next week before the May 31 deadline.
The federal government has committed to a vehicle efficiency standard, recognising that Australia is almost alone in the world in not having one, which means it has become a dumping ground for dirty and inefficient vehicles, and is overlooked by most EV makers.
The government has called for submissions by the end of the month into how strong, and how quickly the standards should be introduced. The EVC says they should come into force next year.
Government should incentivise farmers and tradies to go zero-emission
Jake Whitehead, the head of policy at the EVC, says the government should make specific incentives for different segments of the population to take up zero-emission vehicles.
“The point here is that incentives should be targeted to fill a need. Transitioning to EVs will provide myriad benefits to people who need their vehicles for work, including the ability to use Australian-made energy,” says Whitehead.
“Where there are specific issues that make it difficult for some groups to capture those benefits, we should address them.”
The EVC says that the use of certain groups like farmers and tradespeople as an excuse justify weaker standards needs to stop.
“What we reject is some organisations using parts of our population as a shield to push for weaker standards.” says Whitehead.
“Farmers and tradies don’t want to pay more for fuel, be dependent on foreign oil, or cause more pollution. If a company wants to force them to do so in order to pad its profits, they should be upfront about that. We’ll be ready to challenge them.”
Strong NVES should be transparent and limit concessions
Whitehead also argues against the bonus credits pushed for by the likes of Toyota and the industry body FCAI, which would allow the industry to continue selling higher emitting vehicles.
“The two types of bonus credits that the federal government should not consider are off-cycle credits and air-conditioning credits,” said Whitehead. “These concessions effectively provide free credits for features that are already built into many Australian cars and as result weaken the overall ambition of the standard.”
“Any weakening of the standard through the inclusion of these bonus credits risks further delaying the supply of more low and zero emission vehicles to Australia.
The EVC says the NVES should also recognise “the dynamic nature” of the Australian new vehicle market and encourage a diverse range of low and zero-emission vehicles to meet consumer demand.
The government should set seperate targets for passenger cars vs off-road SUVs and light commercial vehicles and ensure both sets of targets align with aim of over 95% of new vehicles by the mid 2030s.
Government should setup independent source for new vehicle sales data
The EVC also recommends that the government develop an independent source of new vehicle data to be managed by the government. Currently official new vehicle sales data is reported by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) which is the auto industry’s peak lobby group.
FCAI issues vehicle sales data though VFACTS.
“VFACTS is a commercial product managed by the FCAI that is fit-for-purpose for non-governmental use cases. The challenge in Australia is that we currently do not have an independent, public source of new vehicle sales data for governmental purposes,” says Whitehead.
“As a result, the government does not actually know the true emissions rate of the new vehicle fleet, and this has been demonstrated over the last few years through the National Transport Commission’s annual reports which only provide the FCAI figures including bonus credits under their voluntary efficiency scheme.”
Toyota is the largest and most powerful member of the FCAI. Toyota has lobbied hard to water down Australia’s vehicle efficiency standards over many years and the EVC believes its important for vehicle data to come from and independent source so as to avoid conflicts of interest and traditional car makers having influence over policy outcomes.
“Our view is that the government needs to establish an independent source of vehicle sales data to protect the integrity of a new vehicle efficiency standard.” says Whitehead.
Real time tracking of vehicle efficiency targets
The EVC also recommends realtime tracking of NVES targets, a system that New Zealand’s already has in place.
Whitehead says there are differences in the way vehicle registrations are recorded at a national level in New Zealand, versus at a state/territory level in Australia, so we are unlikely to be able to replicate their system exactly. The EVC says in principle the system works as follows:
- Car makers upload their sales data
- Sales data is verified against registration data
- Car makers have the opportunity to amend any discrepancies/errors after verification
- Car makers also have the ability to track their progress against the standard/targets via the same portal used for uploading sales data.
“This independent collection and verification of data, carried out between car makers and the government, ensures the scheme is full auditable, any errors can be corrected, and purposeful misreporting of data can be penalised,” says Whitehead.
“Ultimately this standard sets up the ability for car makers doing the right thing, supply more low and zero emission vehicles, to gain a financial reward for doing so, and those that don’t are penalised.
“The financial implications of the scheme can be significant, and as such, independent collection of the data – similar to the process adopted in New Zealand and other countries – is critical to the overall integrity of the standard.”
Government’s consultation is open until May 31. The EVC is encouraging people to sign and endorse its recommendations for the new vehicle efficiency standard.
Keyword: EV Council says vehicle standards needs to catch up with rest of world before 2030