NSW tops EVC's 2021 electric vehicles policy ratings

NSW has topped the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) policy scorecard ratings for the first time with a rating of 9/10, after the NSW Government introduced its Electric Vehicle Strategy earlier this year.

NSW narrowly beat the ACT (8/10), the Northern Territory and Tasmania (7/10), while Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia scored 6/10. The federal government received the lowest rating with 3/10, after failing to make meaningful inroads in line with other comparable jurisdictions around the world.

The ratings are contained in the EVC’s State of Electric Vehicles 2021 report, which also finds that 8688 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold in Australia in the first half of 2021 — eclipsing the 6900 sold over the whole of 2020. According to EVC Chief Executive Behyad Jafari, the global shift towards EVs is now undeniable.

“When you consider the rhetoric that was being pushed last federal election, the EV discussion in this country has come a long way quite quickly,” Jafari said.

“NSW has introduced Australia’s best electric vehicle policy to date. That $500 million of investment and package of incentives to accelerate the uptake of zero-emissions vehicles is finally something comparable with jurisdictions overseas. I know the whole industry is buoyant about the effect it will have on electric vehicle availability and sales.

“The movement across most states and territories is now generally positive and that’s providing greater confidence to private sector investors, which will pave the way for more places to charge and better services to support e-mobility. The chief headwind at the moment is, unfortunately, a continued lack of leadership on electric vehicles at the federal level. After promising a national strategy two years ago, the federal government has failed to deliver.

“We need to see more electric vehicle models in Australia, particularly at lower price points. That’s happening slowly, but if we want to accelerate the process and attract the globally limited electric vehicle supply, we need policies enacted at the national level, like fuel efficiency standards.

“Australia has more to gain than most countries on electric vehicles. If [we] transition well we’ll be able to meet our net zero goals, break our dependency of foreign oil and improve our air quality.”

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