Australia is being urged to learn the lessons from a scrapped New Zealand plan that imposed penalties on many petrol and diesel cars in a bid to spur the sale of electric vehicles, sparking claims that it set impossible targets.
The warnings come as Energy Minister Chris Bowen considers Australian industry feedback on Labor’s plan to apply tougher fuel emission standards from January 1 to cut emissions from new vehicles by 61 per cent over five years. Douglas, the New Zealand Automobile Association policy chief, said the experience in New Zealand showed that fuel standards had to balance ambition with practicality.
In a sign of the global challenge with the shift to cleaner vehicles, US President Joe Biden is expected to announce revised fuel standards this week after objections from carmakers and unions to his original plan to cut emissions. The Australian government is not replicating the Clean Car Discount, but it is planning to legislate lower vehicle emissions using a similar structure to the New Zealand standards.Marshall said the New Zealand Motor Trade Association believed the country’s emission standards were too complicated and probably punished carmakers with a limited range of small cars with internal combustion engines.