Australia gets “F” for Fail on EV policy, even as consumer interest jumps

The Driven

Australia’s federal government has been given an F for “fail” for its policy efforts to support the uptake of electric vehicles, even as new data shows that more than half of the nation’s driving population is actively considering an EV for their next car.

According to the latest State of the Electric Vehicle report, published on Wednesday by the Electric Vehicle Council, enthusiasm for EVs is “rising markedly” in Australia, despite the stubborn persistence of myths about range, and the stubborn refusal of the federal government to do anything at all to drive the market.

The report also shows “plenty of room to improve” for state and territory governments when it comes to electric vehicles, with the ACT alone in scoring above a C, thanks to its EV tax incentives and a government fleet EV target.

In its first year of giving a letter grading to each state, territory, and federal jurisdiction, the EVC has given the ACT the top score of a B; NSW and Queensland both a C; Victoria and Tasmania a D; and Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and the federal government all Fs.

It’s a grim scorecard, but it is the federal government that should be judged most harshly, for presiding over a country that lags embarrassingly far behind the rest of the world – including Donald Trump’s US – on the inevitable shift to zero-emissions transport.

To read the full version of this story – and view the photo gallery – on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated site, The Driven, click here…

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