- The greater distances required to travel between charging
- The inability of electric cars to carry loads, tow trailers or boats
- The lack of model options to suit agriculture or mining, the main employing industries in regional Australia
Regional Australians will be particularly hard hit under Labor’s policy to force Australians to purchase electric vehicles.
It is Bill Shorten’s plan to achieve 50% of news cars sales to electric vehicles by 2030.
And, Labor’s plan to introduce strict new emission standards for vehicles will drive up the cost of vehicles and potentially see some of most popular cars disappear from the market.
By introducing a fleet-wide 105 gco2/km standard, it will force manufacturers to remove a number of vehicles from the market to try and achieve this goal – or face huge fines.
In regional Australia, where distances are much greater, forcing people to purchase electric vehicles that have a range of only 100km to 150km would cripple local economies and would simply not work.[i]
In the most recent car sales figures, the three top selling vehicles were the Toyota HiLux reporting 4,527 sales, the Ford Ranger with 3,721 sales, and the Mitsubishi Triton which registered 2,666 sales.
In total, SUVs and LCVs represented 67.5 per cent of new vehicle sales in the Australian market during March.[ii]
Model: Feb sales: % change Co2 emissions
Toyota HiLux 4431 0.1% 191 – 203 gco2/km
Ford Ranger 3377 -4.7% 195 – 202 gco2/km
Mitsubishi Triton 3155 66.6% 188 – 191 gco2/km
LandCruiser 70/200 1804 0.9% 281 gco2/km
Toyota Prado 1569 +18.6% 208 gco2/km
Holden Colorado 1302 +25.3% 210 – 230 gco2/km
Nissan Navara 1219 -31.5% 172 – 186 gco2/km
Under Labor’s target, these seven models would be at high risk of not being sold in Australia as Bill Shorten seeks to impose an economy-ruining emissions reduction goal.
People living in regional and rural Australia require these models of vehicles to do their job, whether it is running a farm, working on a mine site, operating a small business or just running the kids around for sport.
Regional Australia needs to see Labor’s vehicle emissions standards as an attack on the ability to choose a vehicle that suits a family or a business.
