Bowen sets his sights on tough vehicle emissions standards

Sydney Morning Herald
August 19, 2022


Average emissions from Australians’ cars would have to fall dramatically and rapidly to meet the ambitions of fuel efficiency standards flagged by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Bowen told an electric vehicle conference in Canberra on Friday that only by quickly introducing fuel efficiency standards in line with world’s best practice could Australia expect to drive down the cost of EVs domestically and expand the range of models available.   

Energy Minister Chris Bowen believes Australia needs world-standard vehicle emissions standards.


In the European Union and United States, manufacturers are compelled to restrict average emissions across their models.

The current standard for cars in the EU is 95g of greenhouse gases emitted per kilometre driven, which will be reduced to 43 grams per km by 2030.

Australia has no compulsory standard, though members of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have signed on to a voluntary standard that aims for the Australian fleet reach 98 grams per kilometre by 2030.

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Bowen said because Australia did not mandate the sale of cleaner vehicles, car companies sent their limited supplies of electric models to jurisdictions that did, leaving models with older, dirtier technology for Australia.

“What the commentators and naysayers who bag electric vehicles as unaffordable and unavailable in Australia deliberately ignore is that this unaffordability and unavailability is a direct result of policy decisions. In fact, Australian policy failures,” he said.

“If the intent of electric car policy in Australia has been to limit their availability and make them more expensive than they need to be, then the policy has been successful. If the intent was to give Australians genuine freedom of choice and access to some of the world’s best, most affordable cars, then it has been a failure.”



The Abbott and Turnbull governments began considering fuel standards in 2015 but struggled with the debate over the cost to households and shelved most of the plans.


Bowen announced the government would release a discussion paper next month on a national electric vehicle policy and invited industry submissions.

Behyad Jafari, chief executive of the Electric Vehicle Council, one of the conference’s host organisations, welcomed Bowen’s assertion that standards needed to meet those already embraced around the world.

“It sets the parameters of the conversation. We need a standard of 70 grams [per kilometre] by 2030. That puts us on the right trajectory,” he said.

Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, whose climate-focused not-for-profit foundation Boundless backs electric car expansion, told the conference the Australian industry’s voluntary standard was like allowing a child to mark their own homework or skip it entirely.

The chamber’s chief executive Tony Weber rejected the criticism, saying the industry had been forced to act on its own because there was no compulsory standard. He said the group welcomed Bowen’s announcement and noted the voluntary standard was under review.


Volkswagen Australia chief executive Paul Samson said one in two customers approaching the company’s dealerships around the country were asking for electric vehicles but could not get them.

He said the range of vehicles demanded by Australian consumers was already under development.

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“I’ve got absolutely no doubt that somewhere sitting in a confidential office in Wolfsburg in Germany, someone’s designing an electric ute,” he said. “It will be made available in right-hand drive. There will be electric utes in our market if we set ambitious goals.”

Currently, 88 per cent of new passenger vehicles sold in Australia are powered by internal combustion engines, while 10 per cent are hybrids and just 2 per cent have battery-powered electric engines.

The NRMA’s head of policy, Rob Giltinan, said public sentiment towards electric vehicles had rapidly shifted over the past five years from being largely negative to 60 per cent positive.   

He said while state governments had introduced policies to back electric vehicles in Australia, emissions standards had been the “missing link”.

Addressing the conference remotely, New Zealand Transport Minister Michael Wood said by introducing policy to support electric vehicles, NZ had seen monthly sales leap from around 3 per cent in 2020 to 20 per cent over recent months.