The Australian federal government today unveiled its electric vehicle (EV) strategy with plans to spend A$250mn ($185mn) largely on EV charging stations. But it has no plans to provide other incentives to accelerate the take-up of EVs in the country.
The A$250mn will expand the Future Fuels Fund (FFF), which is operated by the Australian government agency for allocating financing to low-emissions energy technologies, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The FFF was started up in September 2020 with funding of A$71.9mn.
Expanding the fund allows the government to support an even larger roll-out of infrastructure in urban and regional Australia, Australian energy minister Angus Taylor said. This will add to the 400 EV charging stations the government has already backed through the FFF. The additional spending will include more support for business vehicle fleets and new technology for long distance and heavy duty vehicles such as hydrogen vehicles, Taylor said.
Canberra is targeting its future fuels and vehicles strategy to translate to more than 1.7mn battery EV (BEV) and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEV) on Australian roads by 2030. Australia's Electric Vehicle Council reported 8,688 BEV andPHEVs were sold in Australia during January-June this year, which is 26pc higher than for all of 2020. Spending from the FFF is expected to reduce emissions by 8mn t of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2035, Taylor said.
Australia's transport sector emissions have risen by a third from 61mn t of CO2e in 1990 to 100mn t in 2019, according to its latest audited emissions accounts filed with the UN. Transports emissions are projected to be at 97mn t of CO2e by 2030, according to Australia's latest emissions projections.
Australia has come late to having an EV strategy, which reflects the attitude of the ruling Liberal-National coalition government. This is despite it having no car manufacturing sector and being overwhelmingly reliant on imported oil products, as well as crude for its two remaining refineries. It also has one of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita in the developed world,
The Liberal-National party went to the last federal election attacking its political opposition for proposing to have 50pc of new vehicles sold in Australia by 2030 to be EVs. Since the coalition were elected in 2013 it held a road transport inquiry to develop a strategy but quietly dropped it. It has earmarked A$2.3bn of funding to keep Australia's two remaining refineries open for at least six years, while making no case for encouraging the take-up of EVs to reduce its dependency on imported fuels. Australia during January-August had an average product consumption of almost 920,000 b/d. Its average product imports for the same period was 657,000 b/d, up by 9.7pc from an average of 599,000 b/d in the same period of 2020.
The aversion to EVs finally changed last week when the government said EVs and low-cost solar technology will help meet its ambition of achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050.
