South Australia is the last state to offer a discount on electric car purchases, with a $ 3,000 discount on the first 6,000 vehicles. But it was immediately criticized for not being enough to drive a quick transition to zero-emission cars.
The $ 18 million plan proposed by the South Australian Liberal government would be on top of the $ 18.3 million it joins NSW and Victoria with similar discounts.
“We are determined to invest to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly zero and low-emission vehicles while ensuring that there is a long-term sustainable model for critical road funding,” Treasurer Rob Lucas said in a statement.
“Our proposed new $ 3,000 subsidy for new all-electric vehicles is designed to add further incentive to motorists considering purchasing this type.”
The turnaround by the South Australian government was welcomed, but the Australia Institute says it is a small, temporary measure that will not be enough to ease the transition.
It says South Australia should spend up to $ 107 million to encourage a transition to electric vehicles, an amount equivalent to that of NSW, which in the Electric Vehicle Council’s latest report per capita with the best EV scorecard per capita was awarded.
NSW’s EV plan provides that the first 20,000 EV purchases will receive a $ 3,000 discount and stamp duty exemption starting September 1.
“A small, temporary incentive on top of a permanent tax on an essential weapon in the fight against climate change is just not enough,” Noah Schultz-Byard, SA director of the Australia Institute, said in a statement.
The head of the federal chamber of the automotive industry, Tony Weber, said the new incentives would get the right message across to consumers. “The proposed $ 3,000 customer grant for electric vehicles is a positive signal to customers and auto companies that this emerging technology is an important part of our transportation future,” he said in a statement.
Schultz-Byard argues that with the latest message from the IPCC report that critical climate action and decarbonization must be achieved in the next few years if the planet is to avoid warming above 2 ° C, more action will be taken by the South Australian government need transportation, which in Australia accounts for around 20% of CO2 emissions.
“We are in the middle of a climate emergency and South Australia is already lagging far behind the rest of the world when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions from our transport sector. More needs to be done to support a quick move to electric vehicles, ”he says.
The South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas will deliver the 2020/21 state budget in Adelaide on Tuesday, November 10th, 2020. AAP Image / Kelly Barnes
While Schultz-Byard argues that South Australia needs to step up incentives for drivers because they don’t pay fuel consumption tax.
At some point, a road tax will likely be needed to cope with falling fuel consumption taxes, Lucas said. And while the falling fuel excise tax is largely due to the increasing fuel efficiency of internal combustion-powered cars, it will also decrease as electric cars become more widespread, simply because foreign governments are mandating decarbonization of the transport sector and Australia doesn’t make cars.
The premature introduction of road taxes has been criticized from several quarters because it would block the transition to clean traffic and target the emerging electric car industry in an action likened to a “non-smoker tax” “.
That didn’t stop the Victorian government from introducing an EV tax in July, but NSW is delaying an EV tax until certain milestones are met.
South Australia will now be in line with NSW, postponing the proposed road tax until 2027 or when the state’s car sales hit 30%, whichever comes first.
Weber says state road tolls would make sense if they were applied to all types of vehicles, especially if there isn’t a federal initiative to simplify vehicle taxation.
“The FCAI is a strong advocate of reforming outdated, inefficient and burdensome taxes and charges to be replaced with an efficient road user charge that can apply to any type of vehicle,” he said.
“The proposed usage fee for electric vehicles is in line with the fee proposed in other states, which, in the absence of a federal-led approach, provides a platform for national coherence.
“When the fee is introduced in 2027, or when electric vehicles account for 30% of sales, it will give the market some time to adjust. This will result in low-emission vehicles taking up a larger share of the entire automotive market, ”said Weber.
With 60,000 cars sold in South Australia in 2020, the new incentive would only account for around 10% of purchases if all were claimed within the first year. Achieving the 30% sales target would equate to approximately 1,500 new electric vehicle sales per month.
Survey results released by the Australia Institute in August showed that South Australians love to buy electric cars, but with the higher purchase price of electric vehicles already being a barrier to adoption, 69% said they would not make the switch if a road tax were introduced.
Bridie Schmidt is a senior reporter for The Driven, the sister company of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018 and is very interested in the role that emission-free transport must play for sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organizer of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model 3 and can rent it at evee.com.au.
