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Sam Charlwood13 Sept 2016
NEWS

Why it may soon pay to own a green car

Several Australian states are pushing for electric and hybrid incentives

The race is on between Australia’s major states and territories to make green cars appealing.

As the federal government considers abolishing the Luxury Car Tax for green vehicle owners, motoring.com.au has learned several Australian state and territory governments are now contemplating generous new policies and support of their own for adopters of electric passenger cars.

The push is being spearheaded by South Australia and Queensland and follows definitive research which shows a direct correlation between policy support and electric vehicle adoption. It follows ongoing lobbying from car makers including Tesla to remove state-based stamp duty and registration fees, offer transit lane use and support assisting infrastructure as a means of encouraging green car adoption.

A spokesman for the South Australian government confirmed a number of considerations were on the table as the state pushes to make the city of Adelaide the world’s first carbon-neutral city.

“Encouraging more people to use electric cars would be a major step forward to reducing our emissions and achieving this goal,” he said.

“We’re looking at a number of ways to get more electric cars on our roads and have been lobbying the Commonwealth to exempt electric vehicles from the luxury car tax as a way of growing the industry.”

The Queensland government is also considering new policies over and above its current offer of discounted registration and stamp duty for electric vehicles.

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“Transport and Main Roads is jointly leading a multi-agency development of an EV strategy which is being finalised for government consideration,” a Transport and Main Roads spokesman said.

“Currently our focus is on raising community and commercial awareness of developments and likely future deployment.”

While many Australian states offer minor forms of electric car incentive, our adoption rate of the technology is low compared with the rest of the world. As it stands, less than one per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia are electric.

Conversely, research completed by ClimateWorks Australia shows that with government incentives and support, the projected adoption of electric cars would increase significantly in Australia.

“Norway and California have relatively high rates of electric vehicle uptake compared to the rest of the world. In these jurisdictions, clear policy and regulation have played a key role,” a recent paper released by ClimateWorks recommends.

“With more models becoming available in the market in the last two years and the prospect for lower cost vehicles, there may be a role for government policy to increase uptake and drive down production costs.”

The push for electric car incentives in Australia has been cautiously welcomed by car makers.

Tesla spokesman Heath Walker encouraged respective governments to embrace electric car technology.

“There’s an opportunity for both the state and federal government to make some movement and I think we’ll see some benefit to those markets,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any one thing that could be done to make electric cars a huge dial push, I think abolishing Luxury Car Tax is that big dial push. But things like the removal of stamp duty, which is being done in the ACT, transit lane use and support of infrastructure are probably the three major elements that are being spoken about.”

Mercedes-Benz Australia corporate communications manager David McCarthy welcomed the new schemes but warned states and territories not to overlook the role of plug-in hybrid vehicles in reducing CO2 emissions.

“There’s an opportunity for both the state and federal government to actually encourage low emission or ‘zero emission’ vehicles and I think we’ll see some benefit to those markets if they do,” he said.

“But first we need to look at how the electricity is generated. In NSW and Victoria, much of the electricity is made from coal, so until electric cars are fuelled purely and simply on sustainable energy, such as solar power ... the idea of emissions-free motoring is a distortion of the truth.

“The government would also need to consider extending the incentives to plug-in hybrid cars as well. Rather than provide an incentive to a couple of hundred electric vehicles a year - we will bring electric-only vehicles to this market in the future - let’s widen the discussion on incentives to make it attractive to more buyers. After all, surely lowering emissions is what we all want and a narrow electric only incentive won’t do it alone. ”

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