Category Archives: Electric vehicles

Battery-powered electric vehicle sales plunge by 25% as Australian drivers choose hybrid models

Posted on by

Australian Automobile Association analysis notes hybrids are exempt from fringe benefits tax until 1 April 2025

Battery-powered electric vehicle sales fell sharply last quarter and may have temporarily peaked as consumers turn to hybrid models that attract tax concessions, according to new analysis.

Quarterly vehicle sales data released by the Australian Automobile Association on Monday reveals petrol-powered cars continued to decline in popularity, with sales falling by 9.16% in the three months to 30 September.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

‘Wicked problem’: Coalition doesn’t rule out EV road user tax as fuel excise falls with uptake of greener vehicles

Posted on by

Bridget McKenzie tells Insiders she is working on the opposition’s transport policy ahead of the next federal election – including EV plans

Liberal senator Bridget McKenzie has again left the door open for a Coalition government to level a road user charge against owners of electric vehicles, indicating concern about decreasing fuel excise and the impact on budgets for road repairs.

But the shadow transport minister also said the Coalition wouldn’t follow the US in banning Chinese-made EVs, which put her at odds with comments on Sunday from Nationals colleague, Barnaby Joyce. He invoked last week’s Hezbollah members’ pager explosions in raising his concern about technology he claimed could be made with a “malevolent purpose” by a “totalitarian state”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australians shunning petrol-powered cars for hybrid vehicles as bowser prices rise

Posted on by

Trend also reflects concerns over range and a lack of charging infrastructure affecting purely electric vehicles, experts say

Australians are buying more cars than ever but are increasingly choosing hybrid vehicles over petrol-powered cars due to rising costs at the bowser, new data by the Australian Automobiles Association shows.

Quarterly vehicle sales data released on Monday revealed a further uptick in demand for hybrid vehicles, a trend the industry believes reflects both the rising cost of living, as well as range anxiety and concerns over a lack of charging infrastructure affecting purely electric vehicles.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s skilled mechanics shortage forcing insurers to write off electric vehicles after minor accidents

Posted on by

Lack of parts and outdated laws also contributing to long repair wait times and ballooning premiums

Electric vehicles are routinely being written off after minor accidents, as a shortage of skilled mechanics and parts, as well as outdated laws, leads Australian insurers to scrap EVs prematurely instead of repairing them.

Despite the scarcity of supply that has plagued the local market in recent years, in part due to the lack of a fuel-efficiency standard, the financial reality of insuring EVs is continuing to consign them to scrap yards while inflating premiums for owners.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Labor unveils watered-down fuel efficiency standard that eases emission rules for large SUVs

Posted on by

Bill to be introduced to parliament this week will incentivise carmakers to import cleaner vehicles

The Albanese government has watered down flagship new laws aimed at disincentivising the use of high-polluting cars and hastening the importation of cleaner vehicles amid pressure from the auto industry.

On Tuesday the transport minister, Catherine King, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen, revealed the details of compromise bill to be introduced to parliament this week, with the changes largely easing rules for popular large SUVs.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW announces compulsory training for firefighters to deal with electric vehicle incidents

Posted on by

Announcement comes as motoring body says EV blazes are rare, and after four unrelated lithium battery fires recorded in a single day

Firefighters in New South Wales will need to complete compulsory training on electric vehicles amid a boom in their sales and a spate of lithium battery fires across the state.

The state recorded four lithium battery fires in a single day on Friday, with emergency services responding to blazes in Bankstown, Silverwater, Lake Macquarie and Berkeley. The deaths of two people in a house fire in Lake Macquarie in February were believed to be the first fatalities caused by a lithium battery fire.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Peak motorist body requests clarity on Albanese government’s proposed clean car policy

Posted on by

Automobile Association wants to see the calculations behind national vehicle efficiency standards

The nation’s peak motorist organisation has called on the Albanese government to release in full the modelling underpinning its proposed new laws aimed at removing the worst polluting cars from Australian roads and hastening the uptake of cleaner vehicles.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA), in its submission responding to the government’s proposed national vehicle efficiency standard (NVES), reiterated it has long supported such a scheme. But it said Labor should “be more transparent” about how it arrived at the calculations supporting its preferred, more ambitious targets.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Polestar joins Tesla in quitting auto lobby over its campaign against proposed vehicle efficiency standard

Posted on by

Electric carmaker concerned at ‘overblown’ claims that Albanese government’s plan to import environmentally cleaner cars would increase ute prices

Electric car brand Polestar has become the second company to quit Australia’s main auto industry lobby group over frustrations at its campaign against the Albanese government’s plan to import environmentally cleaner cars.

On Friday – a day after Tesla announced it would cease being a member of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) over the group’s opposition to the government’s proposed vehicle efficiency standard – Polestar Australia’s managing director, Samantha Johnson, wrote to FCAI CEO Tony Weber advising him the Volvo-owned brand was also cancelling its membership.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Tesla accuses Australian car lobby group of making ‘false claims’ about Labor’s vehicle emissions plan

Posted on by

Exclusive: Electric car company says Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is running a ‘concerted public campaign’ by suggesting plan would push up price of popular cars

Tesla has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s main auto industry lobby group, accusing it of attempting to delay climate action by repeatedly making “plainly false” claims to the public about an Albanese government clean car policy.

In a submission to the government about the design of a vehicle efficiency standard, Tesla sharply criticised the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), an organisation in which it holds a board seat and is an active member.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Carmakers may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour, NGO investigation finds

Posted on by

Companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD could do more to ensure their strict standards are applied in China, Human Rights Watch says

Car manufacturers Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour in their supply chains and could do more to minimise that risk, Human Rights Watch says.

An investigation conducted by HRW has alleged that while most automotive companies have strict human rights standards to audit their global supply chains, they may not be applying the same rigorous sourcing rules for their operations inside China.

Continue reading...

Faulty ebike battery sparks fire that guts Sydney apartment

Posted on by

Several people lucky to escape North Bondi blaze that has prompted a warning about lithium-ion batteries

Several people have been lucky to escape after a faulty ebike battery sparked a fire that engulfed a Sydney beachside apartment.

The ebike had been left to charge in the bedroom of a North Bondi unit overnight, Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) said on Friday while warning of the risks posed by lithium-ion batteries.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Electric vehicles: number of charging sites in Australia projected to double by end of 2024

Posted on by

EV market analyst says Australia’s charging network is now growing at a faster rate than the EV fleet

Electric vehicle charging sites will double in Australia again over the coming year, according to a new report, on top of record-breaking growth over the past 12 months.

The analysis, released by consulting firm Next System, found the number of car-charging sites surged by 90% in Australia during 2023.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

How the humble stink bug helped Australia miss a major EV milestone

Posted on by

Experts say short-term frustration for car buyers is preferable to the risk of a biosecurity breach

Australia has missed a major electric vehicle milestone partly thanks to an unexpected bug in the system.

Sales of low-emission vehicles had been tipped to top 100,000 for the first time in 2023.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Have Australian drivers finally charged into electric vehicles?

Posted on by

EV sales are booming and longtime favourite makes and models are being ignored in favour of Tesla and BYD

Newcomer brands and luxury marques are dominating booming electric car sales as mainstream players struggle to match the pace of a fast-evolving EV market.

The top three selling electric vehicles in Australia in 2023 were from Tesla and BYD, between them accounting for two-thirds of the 87,217 electric cars sold, according to figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Continue reading...

‘Paying too much’: what could you save on your holiday road trip if Australia had fuel-efficiency standards?

Posted on by

Climate Council finds average Australian car needs more petrol to travel same distance as more efficient models common overseas

The average Australian car needs more petrol to travel the same distance as more efficient models common overseas, with climate advocates saying inaction from the government on fuel-efficiency standards is adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of road trips.

Analysis from the Climate Council has found that while drivers of battery electric vehicles charging their cars pay only a fifth of the cost of fuelling an internal combustion engine car, there is still a large discrepancy between how much it costs to run petrol-reliant vehicles of varying efficiency.

Continue reading...

Federal Labor under pressure to ‘stop idling’ on car fuel efficiency standards

Posted on by

Australia, along with Russia, remains one of the few countries in OECD without fuel efficiency standard

The federal government is facing pressure to “stop idling” and swiftly introduce new laws that will encourage carmakers to produce cleaner vehicles as Australia eyes its 2030 emissions reduction targets.

Automotive industry bodies and environment advocates say the European-style fuel efficiency standards would offer consumers greater choice of cleaner cars that are cheaper to run amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

Continue reading...

‘Amazing’: Queensland mum uses electric car to ‘save’ son’s life with dialysis during power outage

Posted on by

Kristy Holmes always knew she could use her electric car for ‘good things’, but when storms caused a blackout, it proved life-saving

An electric vehicle owner has used her car’s emergency power system to run her 11-year-old son’s lifesaving dialysis machine and another has ridden to the rescue of his neighbours after devastating storms cut power in south-east Queensland.

When the power went down following storms and flash flooding on Christmas Day, many residents immediately felt the consequences: electric gates did not work, septic tanks began to fill, air conditioners could not run and fridges began to warm as a heatwave followed.

Continue reading...

Sales of electric vehicles surge as fast-charging sites double across Australia in a year

Posted on by

EVs made up just 2% of new car sales in May 2022, but now 8.3% of new car sales in 2023 are battery powered

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has welcomed a boom in electric vehicle sales, revealing the number of fast-charging sites has nearly doubled in the last year.

National strategies on electric vehicles are expected to more than double the number of charger stations again within three years, as the federal government seeks to incentivise the use of cleaner cars. New fuel efficiency standards, expected to be outlined in early 2024, are likely to further discourage the sale of higher-emitting vehicles, making electric cars more attractive.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

Cutting corners on ebike Christmas gifts could be ‘disastrous’, experts warn

Posted on by

Authorities say lithium-ion battery fires happen every week across Australia and poorly built buys could lead to new wave of damage

Choosing the wrong electric bike or scooter could be a fatal mistake this Christmas, experts have warned, amid a rising number of house fires caused by faulty batteries.

Authorities have warned that lithium-ion battery fires are happening every week and a new wave of damage could be unleashed early next year due to poorly built Christmas purchases.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Toyota sales chief says EVs ‘impractical’ for Australian drivers as Tesla retaliates against ‘cynical’ attack

Posted on by

Sean Hanley says hybrid vehicles are ‘better fit’ in Australia but Electric Vehicle Council says brand’s comments could undermine lithium industry

Australia’s most popular car brand, Toyota, has launched a stinging attack on electric vehicles claiming they are not ready for our roads, not as green as they seem and remain “impractical for the vast majority of Australian motorists”.

But Australia’s most popular electric car brand and industry groups claim the argument is a “cynical” attack by a company “too slow off the mark” and at risk of losing the future automotive race.

Continue reading...