The Labor Party looks likely to form the next Federal Government and they have vowed to transport us into a zero-emissions future. But how do their policies get us there? And it is enough? A summary of the key points of the Labor Party's policy can be characterized as lukewarm at best. They are proposing cutting a 5% import duty on EVs and exempting fringe benefits tax on business use of EVs. This will save between $2-$9,000 on an average EV under the Luxury Tax threshold which is around $78,000.
The vast majority of people use their cars to get to work and buy small sedans or an SUV for a growing family. Typically they pay around $30-$50,000 for a petrol or diesel car. How do we rapidly transition those buys to EVs? So far it looks like the Labor policies have missed the mark. Well, what else needs to be done? Is there a blueprint to make it possible for everyday Australians to massively take up electric cars? At a glance, the task seems Herculian. Australia has a total of 24,000 electric vehicles on our roads compared to Norway's ( with 1/5th of our population ) 500,000. Fortunately, we do not have to re-invent the wheel. Listed below are the policies that Norway introduced to get 500,000 electric vehicles on their roads. If you adjust for population and we follow Norways' example that is equivalent to 2.5 million EVs on Australian roads!
For a more light-hearted insight on how Norway killed the petrol car watch the full video from the Fully Charged show.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1990 | Temporary exemption from import tax |
| 1996 | Import tax exemption made permanent |
| Reduced annual registration tax | |
| 1997 | Exemption from road tolls |
| 1998 | International launch of Th!nk in Brussels |
| 1999 | Special "EL" series plates introduced |
| Free parking in public spaces | |
| The Danish company Kewet becomes Norwegian | |
| 2000 | Reduced company car tax |
| 2001 | VAT reduced to zero percent |
| 2003 | Access to bus lanes in the Oslo region |
| 2005 | Access to bus lanes made permanent and extended nationwide |
| 2008 | Oslo launched municipal EV charging infrastructure program |
| 2009 | Free access to road ferries |
| 2011 | Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Nissan Leaf launched in Norway |
| 2012 | Norwegian Parliament extends electric car incentives until 2018, or when the 50,000 EV target is reached[3] |
| 10,000th electric car registered | |
| Jul 2013 | Weight tax deduction for plug-in hybrids introduced |
| Aug 2013 | Tesla Model S launched in Norway[43] |
| Sep 2013 | First country in the world to have an electric car topping the new car sales monthly ranking (Tesla Model S)[44][45] |
| Mar 2014 | 1% of all cars in use are plug-in electrics[46] |
| Apr 2015 | 50,000th all-electric car registered[47][48] |
| May 2015 | Decision to keep existing incentives through 2017[26][27] |
| Parliament agreed to reduced EV tax incentives gradually beginning in 2018[26][27] |
|
| Local authorities granted right to decide about EV use public of bus lanes and free parking[26][27] |
|
| Apr 2016 | 100,000th plug-in electric vehicle registered.[49][50] |
| Jul 2016 | First EVs with the "EK" prefix series plates on the road.[51] |
| Dec 2016 | 100,000th all-electric vehicle registered.[52] |
| 5% of passenger cars on the road are plug-in electrics.[5] | |
| Dec 2017 | Over 200,000 plug-in electric vehicles registered.[53] |
| 5% of all cars on the road are all-electric.[20] | |
| Average new fleet CO2 emissions in 2017 were 82g/km, achieving the government's target set for 2020.[20] |
|
| Jul 2018 | First EVs with the "EV" prefix series plates on the road.[54] |
| Oct 2018 | 10% of passenger cars on the road are plug-in electrics.[6] |
| Dec 2018 | 200,000th all-electric vehicle registered.[55] |
| The Nissan Leaf was the best selling new passenger car in 2018, first time an electric car topped annual sales.[9][56] |
|
| Jan 2019 | 50,000th Nissan Leaf registered.[57][58] |
| Sep 2019 | First EVs with the "EB" prefix series plates on the road.[54] |
| Dec 2019 | The Tesla Model 3 listed as the best selling new car model, the second time an all-electric car topped annual sales.[59] |
| Apr 2020 | 10% of all cars on the road are all-electric.[60][61] |
| Jun 2020 | 300,000th battery electric vehicle was registered.[60] |
| Dec 2020 | Over 15% of all cars on the road are plug-in electric.[1] |
| Plug-in car segment achieved a record market share of 74.7% of annual new passenger car sales.[11] |
|
| More than half of annual car sales were fully electric (54.3%).[11] | |
| Sep 2021 | Over 20% of all cars on the road are plug-in electric.[1] |
| April 2022 | 500,000 all-electric cars on the road.[62] |