Strong fuel efficiency standards will be key to delivering price parity between electric vehicles (EVs) and fossil fuel cars m and to meeting the government’s net zero by 2050 aim, according to the Climate Change Authority (CCA). Â
“The administrative arrangements for the Fuel Efficiency Standard should include a regular review process to identify any adjustments needed to ensure that emissions goals are being met and that consumers are being supplied with a range of vehicle options at acceptable price points,” it said in its submission on the proposed standard.Â
“If emissions from new light vehicles are to be largely eliminated by 2050, the share of EVs in total light vehicles sales will need to reach 100 per cent by around 2040, given that it takes time to turn over the light vehicle fleet.”
The federal government has promised a fuel efficiency standard, but not yet declared its scope and scale. It opened consultations on its proposed Fuel Efficiency Standard in April and it’s due to launch by the end of the year.
It will bring Australia into line with all other countries in the world – bar Russia, with which it currently shares the dubious title of being the only nations not to have such a standard in place.Â
When he announced the proposal, minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen noted the absence of a standard is stalling the supply of EVs and costing fossil car owners more than $500 a year in extra fuel costs.
Many analysts say Australia has become a dumping ground for inefficient cars, and say the lack of a standard is the reason so many car makers send their EVs to markets where they do apply.
Australia’s EV sales have jumped to more than 7 per cent as a share of new car sales, but largely on the back of sales from EV-focused manufacturers such as Tesla, BYD and Polestar.
The CCA’s submission, which it only published on Friday despite submitting in May, supports reducing loopholes for car manufacturers and putting it in the driver’s seat as the regulator.Â
Its other key recommendation is moving the Australian vehicle fleet to a 0 g CO2 per km baseline as soon as possible – and from a 2023 baseline, not a 2021 baseline.Â
“While the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts has given the known baseline of the new car fleet as 173.6 g CO2 per km in 2021, there has been an increase in electric vehicle sales over the last three years,” the CCA said in its submission on the proposed fuel standard.Â
“The 2023 baseline would likely be lower than the 2021 baseline provided.”
Bigger cars should be allowed to emit slightly more than smaller ones, using a footprint model, which the CCA notes it pitched in 2014, and the government should look at opening up the market for second hand EVs.
The other key inducement to get more EVs on the road will be supercharging recharge infrastructure, the CCA says.Â
“The roll-out of this infrastructure will take a number of years and the design of the Fuel Efficiency Standard needs to take account of the availability of this infrastructure,” it says.Â
The CCA noted that penalties for selling cars that don’t meet the new framework will need to be in line with those overseas, to prevent car makers from dumping non-compliant vehicles in Australia and treating the fine as a cost of doing business here.Â
The government should be cautious about making the standards more complicated than they need to be.
“Keeping the standard focused on tailpipe emissions, without multipliers, would allow the scheme to remain simple in concept and free of integrity issues that could arise with other forms of crediting,” it says.
Super credits are for vehicles that come in under the standard’s baseline, for example in the EU vehicles with tailpipe emissions lower than 50 g CO2 per km were counted as 1.33 cars in 2022.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.