Motorists will have to be offered steep discounts on electric vehicles to achieve a bold federal plan to cut the nation’s fuel emissions over the next five years, says a new analysis that predicts the average price may have to be $31,000 below that of an equivalent petrol passenger car.
At stake is the Labor target to cut emissions from new vehicles by 61 per cent by 2030 by tightening the emission standards for about 1.2 million new vehicles sold each year, assuming a dramatic shift to electric vehicles. “Vladimir Putin isn’t my role model for any policy, let alone the standards of vehicles,” Albanese said on Tuesday.
The government wants to give carmakers financial credits on models that beat the fuel standards, an approach that could cut the cost of EVs, but the economic analysis for the association says the targets would require a huge shift to electric models.
The prices required in the SUV market would be $33,600 for an EV and $80,800 for a petrol or diesel model, mainly because the modelling assumes buyers put great value on range and reliability and are not yet convinced that electric models can match an existing Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux or Isuzu D-MAX.