Two years ago the Prime Minister famously called Labour’s embrace of electric cars ‘the end of the weekend’.
But no longer. Mr Morrison recently unveiled a strategy to support 1.7M zero emissions vehicles on Australia’s roads by the end of the decade.
Its been met with a lot of cynicism in the press, but if he’s had a genuine change of thinking or its just part of his election plan (as has been widely suggested), the end result is its still going in the right direction.
In essence he’s promising to boost funding for charging infrastructure as part of a $178M expansion of its Future Fuels Fund. He says that will mean charging stations at over 400 businesses, 50,000 households and more than 1000 public access points.
It may do something to get our electric car sales up past the anaemic 2% they are now, with the government projecting that electric cars will still hit 30% of new car sales by 2030 as the market increasingly pivots to greener vehicles.
The Electric Vehicles Council, of which I’m a member, has criticised the move, saying it lacks subsidies or tax incentives, fuel efficiency standards or an end date for the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. These seem logical steps to take if we really do want a lot more greener cars on our roads within the foreseeable future.
It may also signal that the Prime Minister understands the electorate is changing, with a majority favouring action on climate change, with electric vehicles also increasingly popular.
Of course copper is key. Electric vehicles use up to four times as much copper than conventional petrol cars, crucial for motors, batteries, inverters and wiring. Copper also fuels charging infrastructure, found in cables, transformers and wiring to the electric panel.
Cheers, John Fennell