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Philip Lord11 Apr 2014
NEWS

BMW: EVs need subsidies

Government subsidies are the only way to grow electrified vehicle sales, says BMW

BMW Australia has announced its rollout of pure-electric and plug-in hy-brid cars from late this year, and believes governments must provide direct cash subsidies and/or concessions on fees and duties if sales of electrified vehicles are to improve.

Speaking at the first local public unveiling of the i8 hybrid supercar and pricing announcement for i3 in Sydney this week, BMW Group Australia Managing Director Phil Horton said the only other markets where EVs had taken hold were those with government assistance.

“The evidence clearly suggests from other markets that you don’t change buyer behaviour in terms of more fuel-efficient vehicles unless there is government action.”

Horton said that BMW was in discussions with all three tiers of Australian government, but added that this was part of the problem in gaining gov-ernment support.

“That is part of the issue there… there are so many levels of government.”

The introduction of a government subsidy or other support will not arrive in time for the introduction late this year of BMW’s i3 electric car, said Horton.

“We’re actually in dialogue with government now -- but will that [result in a subsidy] by November? No, it clearly won’t.”

BMW’s lobbying for assistance had not fallen on deaf ears, said Horton, rather that discussions with the federal government “…have been quite promising, so we’re going to take that forward.”

Horton said that BMW had not asked for a subsidy as part of those discus-sions.

“I think that would be unrealistic at the moment.”

“Our aspiration would clearly be, in the fullness of time, something like they have in the UK or some other markets where you either get a straight-forward $10,000 subsidy because you’re buying an electric car or at least -- and this is why you have the complexities of dealing with federal and state government -- a waiver of some part of the on-road charges; stamp duty whatever.

“We’ve had some discussions with the toll providers, where there would be a waiver of tolls on electric cars.

“There are a whole range of things they could do -- whether they do them is a different thing.”

Australia is one of few countries that does not offer any concessions or subsidies for electric vehicle purchase or ownership. All countries in west-ern Europe offer government subsidies, as does China, South Korea, Ja-pan, Canada, United Kingdom and the USA.

Renault Australia last year said it would bring in its EV the Zoe, but it must have government support to do so.

BMW Australia estimates it will sell only 100 to 150 i3s in 2015. In a stark contrast to this, BMW Japan is expecting to sell 6000 i3s in a total market of about five million cars per annum – just five times that of Aus-tralia.

Japan sold just under 30,000 new EVs in 2013, while Australia’s total was 253, of which just 47 were sold to private buyers.

Recently Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited conceded its dealers were wary of its new Outlander PHEV, given the lack of success of other existing green cars such as the Holden Volt and Nissan LEAF.

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Written byPhilip Lord
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