January 23, 2018: A proposal to rejuvenate an old Commodore factory to manufacture electric vehicles is exactly the future South Australia should strive for instead of outdated plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

Plans by a British billionaire to turn the former Holden factory into an electric car manufacturing hub were revealed in a letter from the SA Treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, to GM Holden asking them to support the plans and purchase of assets from the closed Elizabeth factory [1].

“This is a reminder that South Australia’s pathway to energy and economic security lies in clean energy technology, not outdated fossil fuels” Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner, Nathaniel Pelle, said.

“Electric vehicles and batteries are the industries of the future and this plant would be another example of SA leading the rest of the country.

“With oil demand predicted to peak as early as the next decade and the rest of the world moving away from fossil fuels this is another reminder of why we should keep drilling out of the Great Australian Bight.”

Greenpeace is calling for a permanent ban on oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight in order to protect this unique wilderness and a rapid shift to clean transport modes, including electric vehicles, to combat climate change and air pollution .

“The UBS global autos survey released in November predicted that almost every sixth car sold in the world will be electric by 2025 [2],” Pelle said.

“Drilling in the Bight is not only gambling with the Bight’s marine life and fishing industries,  with cities such as Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, and Athens already committing to removing petrol vehicles from their roads by 2030 it’s also a bad bet against a future in which the end of the oil age is inevitable” .

“The offshore oil industry, like the coal industry, is in a state of decline with job cuts and project cancellations occuring on a regular basis. Oil companies have admitted that oil-related job prospects in South Australia would be ‘negligible’. Backing electric cars and renewable technology on the other hand will ensure jobs for the future.”

Notes for editors:

[1] http://bit.ly/2DxHpbe

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-28/rise-of-electric-cars-quickens-pace-to-tesla-s-benefit

For interviews contact:

Simon Black

Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Media Campaigner

0418 219 086 / [email protected]