A fuel efficiency standard is the first step to opening up the Australian market to more EVs and ensuring that demand for them can be met.
A fuel efficiency standard is the first step to opening up the Australian market to more EVs and ensuring that demand for them can be met.
Fuel efficiency standards are rules that require vehicle manufacturers to reduce the amount of pollution from the vehicles they sell. The standards put a limit on the total average emissions across all cars sold by each manufacturer, incentivising the development and sale of more efficient vehicles, to balance out the sale of more polluting vehicles. Manufacturers are then liable for fines and penalties if their vehicles don’t meet the required standards. The standards improve over time, eventually reaching a point where only zero emissions vehicles can be sold.
Other major markets like the UK and EU will see petrol cars phased out by 2030 or 2035. And many major auto manufacturers will stop making petrol cars in similar time frames. The introduction of fuel efficient standards in Australia would push manufacturers to send more EVs to Australia, which will increase the range and affordability of vehicles on offer and help drive rapid investments in electric vehicle infrastructure.
Unless the Federal Government urgently introduces fuel efficiency standards, Australia will continue to be left behind with dirty, polluting transport that impacts both our climate and the health of all Australians.
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