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…