Electric cars play a big part in how we will view the future of green energy in Australia, at least according to Ed Husic, Labour’s shadow secretary for industry and innovation.
Speaking at an election this year, Labor has proposed an electric vehicle policy with a strong focus on simply getting people up to speed on the new technology. It’s a very ambitious policy.
Husic believes we are at a crossroads. For a time, Australia had a strong manufacturing workforce, but with the loss of local Holden, Ford and Toyota manufacturing, that workforce has migrated to other industries. Husic believes we can bring a green future back to the Australian automotive industry.
“A big part of this is also about unlocking the potential for domestic electric vehicle manufacturing,” Husic told Gizmodo Australia.
“We are putting $3 billion on the table in loans or equity to support this.
“So we’re serious — we think we have to do this because this type of manufacturing is critical to any modern economy.” People understand that we need to revitalize manufacturing in Australia given what we’ve been through, and if we’re talking about rebuilding sovereign capabilities and not wanting to be a victim of disrupted global supply chains, those are the kind of tough issues to come up with that we need to focus on and tackle.”
Bringing back automobile production
A quick refresher. Ford stopped producing vehicles in Australia in 2016, with Holden and Toyota following in 2017. There were a number of factors that led to this – low import tariffs, roll-on effects from the global financial crisis and a lack of support for local automakers topped the list Reasons why Australian-made cars are now just a memory. About 50,000 jobs were lost in 12 months.
But electric vehicles are a technology that’s seeing major innovation and manufacturing around the world, with various automakers set to transition to all-electric vehicles in the coming years. It’s a wave that Labor wants to catch.
“It’s about two things – it’s about revitalizing manufacturing while reducing emissions,” continued Husic.
“By manufacturing here, not only can we create jobs and economic opportunity, but as more vehicles appear on our roads, we can better address transportation and the emissions that transportation creates.”
Regarding electric vehicles, the coalition has pushed for greater public and private infrastructure, including charging stations for electric vehicles. Charging station infrastructure is an important aspect, of which it is estimated that there are only around 3,000 in Australia. For comparison: The US state of California has more than 73,000 public charging stations. The focus on charging points isn’t unwelcome, but it’s not about making electric cars cheaper in Australia, which Husic says he’s much more interested in doing.
The electric vehicle culture change
Interestingly, Australia will have electric vehicles manufactured on land in the coming years. ACE EV hopes to produce a fleet of vehicles entirely in Australia within the next two years, with the first hitting the road later this year. When I spoke to Gregory McGarvie, Managing Director of ACE EV, he stressed that Australia needs a “culture shift” in relation to electric vehicles to offset lower mileage and a change in how the vehicle performs for the individual. I asked Husic what he thought of it.
“I think the culture change needs to happen at a political level where governments take this seriously… it’s just not a niche technology that people aren’t going to embrace, we need to support it, we need to start with it,” Husic replied. He later compared Australia to other countries in terms of EV adoption, saying we are embarrassingly behind.
“What we said is that we would introduce tax changes to fundamentally encourage uptake of electric vehicles,” Husic added to address this.
EV incentives like this are offered at the state level. At the moment, Canberra is promoting an EV policy with subsidies, with some other states offering concessions. At the federal level, a far-reaching electric vehicle policy would complement these state offerings well.
Husic added that EV technology needs to be further improved as it is introduced.
He highlighted concerns about charging station locations and range anxiety, even though modern electric vehicle ranges far exceed Australia’s daily travel average (about 38 kilometers, McGarvie previously pointed out).
“Technology will keep improving with investment, but we need a market to drive that investment, and if we’re making just 1 percent of new car sales as EVs, then that’s a problem,” Husic concluded.
