IMO we should think our EV & vehicles generally from the top down as we should our energy policy.
We import $44 billion vehicles and $44 billion of petroleum annually. This is a shitload of imports which is enough to negate our coal & LNG exports for the year lus a bit.
IMO we should be thinking how we can compensate for the increased import bill by importing EVs which are at least 50% more expensive to import than their equivalent ICEs.
The answer, IMO, is for the Industry Dept in conjunction with Austrade & CSIRO to devise a plan to manufacture EV components, particularly aluminium alloy components to supply some of our FTA partners who are big auto manufacturers.
We have FTAs with Japan, South Korea, China (the biggest global vehicle manufacturer) and Thailand (which supplies a fair share of our branded imports at present) and if that is not possible, then do a Trump: cut a bilateral trade deal.
Our FTAs are piss weak if only our farmers benefit, IMO, and our urban working class is relegated to minimum wage!
