Morrison government says no electric vehicle policy until mid-2020

The Driven

The Australian Coalition government says will not release its national electric vehicle strategy until midway through next year – over 12 months away, presuming it is still in power after the upcoming May election.

The decision on a delay – confirmed by the office of environment minister Melissa Price on Tuesday – will frustrate EV advocates because it leaves the transition to zero emissions transport in Australia to languish longer while the rest of the world gets on with it.

A detailed national electric vehicle strategy to accelerate the transition to zero emissions transport has been anticipated since Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in February 2019 that a such a strategy would be introduced as part of the LNP government’s Climate Solutions package.

At the time, a one page “fact sheet” was uploaded to the Environment department’s website, but this did little other than confirm that a national electric vehicle strategy should be developed – but not when that would be.

While it was thought that a detailed national electric vehicle strategy would materialise within weeks of the Climate Solutions speech, the mid-2020 timeline has been confirmed by Price’s office.

Comments made recently by the PM during a private meeting with a senior auto company manager had hinted that the wait may be longer than expected.

Read the full story on 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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