Elon Musk says “no question” Australia can meet 50% electric car target by 2030

Cannon-Brookes and Elon Musk

CEO and founder of electric car company Elon Musk has put in his two cents worth into Australia’s debate on whether or not the target put forward by Labor to have half of all new car sales electric by 2030 can be met.

“No question,” is the short answer from Musk.

He delivered his verdict on the state of electric vehicles in Australia to Michael Cannon-Brookes, CEO of software giant Atlassian, reprising the so-called “billionaire tweets” that ended up seeing South Australia install the now renowned Tesla big battery – the biggest in the world.

Australia is currently knee-deep in a media furore about electric vehicles, since the Coalition said it would not release its promised strategy as part of its “Climate Solutions” package until midway through next year (and this with a federal election looming), prompting Labor to step up to the plate with a 50% target for electric vehicle target by 2030.

Labor has since copped considerable criticism for this policy, which is half as ambitious as the Australian Greens policy of 100% electric vehicle sales by 2030 but has still sent Coalition members into apoplectic fits making all kinds of false claims about the suitability of electric vehicles for Australians.

Not so Cannon-Brookes, who reached out to the Tesla CEO for his opinion on the matter.

To read the tweets and the full story, please go to RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated site, The Driven…

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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