Australians are being promised more choice for fuel-efficient cars and electric vehicles under the Albanese government’s mandatory pollution caps, which it claims will save drivers $1000 in fuel a year, triggering a political fight over the future of utes and the cost of climate action to households.
The long-awaited fuel efficiency standard applies only to new car sales and limits the average emissions of a carmaker’s overall fleet of vehicles sold each year, measured in grams of CO₂ per kilometre.
It is designed to encourage them to sell either more efficient petrol cars or electric vehicles, and companies must pay a penalty of $100 for each gram per kilometre they exceed the caps.
Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien and opposition Transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said on Sunday that the government’s policies to limit cumulative vehicle emissions could raise the cost of utes so high that they would be unaffordable.
Bowen branded the opposition’s claims “laughable” and said Australia risked becoming a dumping ground for old inefficient models without a new standard. Pollution caps would drive carmakers to bring to Australia a greater range of more efficient models that are currently being sold in major international markets, he said.
Australia is the last advanced economy to impose a fuel efficiency standard. The policy has been applied to most major car markets for decades, covering about 85 per cent of the global car sales.
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