The ACT Greens have announced a $50 million plan as part of a larger strategy supporting electric vehicle uptake in the Territory with the aim of getting “Canberra’s rEVolution” really into gear.
With the ACT’s electricity supply now based on 100% renewables, the bulk of the Territory’s emissions come from transport – around 63%. The Territory has a goal of attaining carbon neutrality by 2045, so electric and other zero emissions vehicles will play an important role in reaching this target.
According to the Electric Vehicle Council’s State Of Electric Vehicles August 2020, 134 EVs (excluding Tesla) were sold in the ACT in 2019. EVs represented just 83 of each 10,000 vehicles purchased. Even at this proportion, the ACT led Australia.
As in other parts of Australia, there are many Canberra drivers who would like to be behind the wheel of an electric car, but price remains a barrier. Currently, EVs are still pretty pricey – the cheapest being around the $50k mark.
Kickstarting Canberra’s rEVolution
Assuming the ACT Greens still hold the balance of power after the upcoming election on September 28, the party plans to tackle the current high cost of electric vehicles with:
- A $28.5 million fund to provide support of up to $10,000 for ACT residents to purchase a zero emissions car or motorbike. Half of this amount will be a direct subsidy, and half will be a no-interest loan – payback timeframe not mentioned.
- $10 million in grant funding for community and not-for-profit service organisations to buy suitable zero emissions passenger vehicles or commercial vehicles.
- A $10 million grants fund for local business to purchase zero emissions commercial vehicles.
- $3 million for businesses, body corporates and community organisations to apply for financial support to install charging infrastructure.
Free registration (government component only) will also be provided for zero emission vehicle owners from 2021 – 2024. Electric bicycles will get some love too, with discounts up to 50% off the retail price of an e-bike.
“A lack of government support has left Australia languishing when it comes to zero emission vehicles,” said ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury. ” Our policy will turn this around, making electric vehicles more available, affordable and convenient. In a decade, driving an EV will be the norm in Canberra, even for commercial businesses.”
Other major elements of the ACT Greens’ plan:
- Setting a target for 90% of new car sales to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2030.
- Transitioning to zero emissions public transport, garbage trucks, taxi and rideshare vehicles by 2035.
- Increasing electric vehicle charging stations via a reverse auction process and making charging stations a requirement for multi-unit and commercial buildings.
- Activities with the goal of attracting zero emission vehicle industries and other economic and educational opportunities to the ACT.
- Vehicle2Grid and Vehicle2Home research and pilot projects.
- Travel incentives for zero emissions vehicles, such as bus lane access.
More details on the “Canberra’s rEVolution” package can be found here.
Are EV Subsidies Across Australia The Way To Go?
There’s nothing like “free money” to boost uptake of clean tech – solar is a shining example of the power of subsidies, whatever form they might take. But whether subsidies are a good option in the case of electric vehicles is a topic of some debate. Back in 2018, SQ’s Ronald delved into the issue and arrived at the conclusion:
“It makes no sense to subsidise electric cars when what we should do instead is make those who emit greenhouse gases and toxins into the air pay for the harm they cause.”
However, he also mentioned that in the absence of such a policy, some sort of subsidy on electric cars and potentially other low polluting vehicles could be a “less efficient, second best policy”.
Related: SQ’s Homeowner’s Guide To Solar And Electric Cars
About Michael Bloch
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Even in my well-insulated living room, I can hear the conspiracy theorists firing up!
(The Greens are not well respected amongst the boganites in the Nation’s capital.)
But me? I say it’s about time! Bring it on!
Pity the insurance companies dont get on board. (1/2 the costs of car registration is insurance).
Still, it will save about $500 per year. (Until the ACT Government realises just how much revenue it was blackmailing out of motorists in petrol taxes. ) Where will that come from Mr. Rattenbury?
Does the ACT govt collect petrol taxes?
Jethro, you can rely on the ingenuity of government to devise some new scheme that ‘justifies’ charging EV owners their definition of a ‘fair’ amount.
Australians as a whole can though be just as ingenious, and they outnumber the politicians. It has been said that Death and Taxes are certainties, (even if nothing else is), and thus considerable thought is given by many on how to avoid both of those for as long as possible.
GST is in fact an efficient and low cost method of taxation, and its pretty hard to avoid. A thrifty person who doesn’t spend much gets rewarded for his virtue because he doesn’t pay as much GST, while a more spendthrift wealthy person ends up paying more over their lifetime.
Even the ultra-wealthy have some difficulties avoiding GST
Jethro,
You state:
“I say it’s about time! Bring it on!”
Agreed. Australia needs to rapidly reduce its petroleum dependency.
Meanwhile, Australian Workers Union (AWU) national secretary Daniel Walton has reportedly said: “A genuine fuel supply crisis would make COVID-19 look like a blip”.
There are calls for a hike in the pump price of petrol to combat a potential oil crisis in Australia which could lead to “pandemonium on the streets”.
See: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/on-the-road/controversial-call-to-hike-petrol-prices-to-secure-australias-fuel-security/news-story/fe75f57d995c204923202e768c7dea41
Today, the Australian Federal Government said it will invest $200 million in ramping up Australia’s oil storage. But you need to have an adequate surplus fuel supply to fill these storage facilities – where’s that coming from in future?
Per energy services firm Baker Hughes Co., U.S. oil rigs fell one to 180 in the week to Sep 11, while gas rigs also declined by one to 71. The rig count is an early indicator of future oil and gas production.
See: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rigs-baker-hughes-idUSKBN2622JY
It takes an estimated 450 operating oil rigs to maintain 5.5 million barrels per day (Mb/d) of US shale oil production and 11 Mb/d total US oil production. It’s inevitable that US oil production will dramatically decline over the next 12 months, even if large numbers of rigs are added now, because of the considerable lag time to bring back production. But constrained budgets and relatively low oil prices are unlikely to encourage significantly higher rig counts. US oil production cannot be maintained without drilling many new wells to offset legacy well declines.
See: https://www.artberman.com/2020/09/03/stop-expecting-oil-and-the-economy-to-recover/
World conventional crude oil production has plateaued since about 2005.
See: https://crudeoilpeak.info/2005-2018-conventional-crude-production-on-a-bumpy-plateau-with-a-little-help-from-iraq
Diesel powers most trucks, trains and ships that drive trade and economies. Without diesel, the currently configured economy stops.
The evidence I see suggests don’t expect global oil production to ever recover back to 2018/19 levels.
The $200 million to improve oil security is a dumb move compared to simply using less oil which would reduce health costs and increase life expectancy.
Yep, it’s a stupid move. The $200 million would be better spent encouraging a transition away from petroleum.
Diesel exhaust fumes are a killer.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2131067-diesel-fumes-lead-to-thousands-more-deaths-than-thought/
Australian diesel oil fuel imports are apparently still trending up.
See: https://twitter.com/crudeoilpeak/status/1305356214952361986/photo/1