Major car brands accused of trying to write 'loopholes' into Australia's looming fuel efficiency laws
Automotive brands are being accused of pushing a "loophole" policy so they can keep selling dirty and inefficient vehicles to Australian consumers.
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If government invested in a renewables program by installing charging stations almost equal to the amount of fuel servos we have, and heavily incentivise electric vehicles we would see a major transition without car manufacturers shoving corruption in our faces and money towards lobby groups.
Unlikely. Car manufacturers don't particularly care how you're going to charge it. That's a you problem not a them problem.
They're resisting because Oz has been a place they can dump polluting cars that are cheap to make. The big markets like EU and California have mandated EVs, if they can delay the cutoff here it buys them time to do the ramp ups they should have been doing for a decade.
Toyota in particular is the worst culprit, they spent a lot of money in the US trying to prevent ICE being banned, because they bet on hydrogen and lost, now they're doing exactly the same delay tactics here.
Thanks for the input. I hope I was at least making sense previously even though it was more of a utopian society that we'd probably get to see something like that.
I'm not having kids, but I'd like for the youth of today to grow up in a more eco friendly lifestyle without the need for gas in the future.
You're not wrong that more chargepoints help, it reduces EV resistance and range concerns, and hence helps consumers be willing to buy EVs.
It won't stop legacy ICE lobbying to delay mandatory cutoff on ICE sales.
They (collectively) have $trillions invested in ICE factories and engine designs etc that become valueless when ICE are banned. As VW found out leveraging existing factories is ineffective, you need to build for EV manufacture, which means billions in written off assets and years of delay for legacy auto.
If they can convince any market to delay the ban that's literally dollars in the bank and bonuses in pocket.
Car manufacturers donβt particularly care how youβre going to charge it
Bullshit. Of course manufacturers are concerned about charging networks. If you can't charge their car you won't buy their car.
they bet on hydrogen and lost
How so? Hydrogen hasn't been banned anywhere. There's still a lot of implementation problems but it's a pretty neat tech. There's 3x huge solar projects going ahead in West Aus to crack water and produce hydrogen.
They are funding charging stations, and the networks are pretty decent now for long trips.
There's still holes that need filled in, especially when you get away from population centres and main roads, but you can drive from Port Douglas in far north Queensland to Adelaide in any new EV.
Adelaide to Perth is currently a no. There's a 2000km stretch with one fast charger. Not impossible, but it means several days of slow charging along the route.