Speaker 1:
So we’re going to go live to the minister for energy, the New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, you have the floor.
Matt Kean:
Thank you so much [inaudible 00:00:14] and I’m sorry, I can’t be with you in person, but I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of land on which I’m standing today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Can I thank you so much for the invitation to join your summit and let me acknowledge so many of my peers and colleagues across the political aisle from jurisdictions around the nation, who are continuing to push reform to support the uptake of EVs.
And I want to applaud the innovators and entrepreneurs from the private sector who are so committed and pivotal to the market transformation that we need to see occur. It is your investment in new ideas and new technology that needs to be harnessed, as we seek to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles. There is overwhelming evidence that a tectonic shift is underway among policy makers, car makers, and consumers across the globe. Sales of electric vehicles doubled in 2021 from the previous year, to a new record of 6.6 million and now account for nearly 10% of global car sales. Car makers are retooling their production lines in response to consumer demands and many have set clear targets for phasing out the production of internal combustion engines.
Governments continue to support the push, including tens of billions of dollars in clean fuel and vehicle tax credits, in the Inflation Reduction Act that is poised to pass in the US Congress. As this transformation accelerates, I’m determined to say that New South Wales is positioned as the best place in Australia to buy and drive an electric vehicle. It is absolutely essential to our mission reduction goals. Our economy wide targets are clear, with the goal of achieving net zero by 2050 and a 50% cut in emissions by 2030 against the 2005 baseline.
The transport accounts for 20% of our state submissions, with almost 50% of those coming from passenger vehicles. And without action transport emissions are currently projected to become the leading source of emissions by 2035. So New South Wales understands the importance of decarbonizing transport as we pursue our emissions reductions goals, but we are also determined to seize the mammoth economic opportunities on offer.
New South Wales has a mix of rare minerals, workforce, technological capability and renewable energy sources needed to foster the electric vehicle revolution. The electric vehicle strategy that we released last year, [inaudible 00:02:48] these possibilities by tackling the three biggest barriers to pursuing an EV, upfront cost, model availability and of course, range anxiety.
We aim to drive sales of electric vehicles to more than 50% of new car sales by 2030, and for electric vehicles to be the vast majority of new car sales by 2035. So we committed to rebates of $3,000 on the purchase of electric vehicles sold for under 68,750. And as at the 31st of July, we have issued nearly 2,900 rebates since the initiative began in September last year.
At the same time, we removed stamp duty from EVs valued at less than $78,000, which has helped more than 4,000 customers as at the 31st of July. We’re investing $105 million to accelerate the transformation among fleet operators. Corporate and government fleets account for almost half of new vehicle sales in Australia.
So there are massive strides to be made in that space. And our reverse auction fleets incentive process, to be conducted every six months for the next three years, will help to bridge the cost of transitioning fleets to electric. Our first option produced 20 successful bids and will lead to about 850 new battery electric vehicles hitting the road with 4.5 million in New South Wales government incentives.
Following this success, our second round option is currently underway with a funding allocation of 15 million and a final bidding window closing on October the 24th. We’ve committed to electrifying the New South Wales government’s passenger vehicle fleet by 2030, with an interim target of 50% of fleet procurement to be EVs by 2026. New South Wales is also continuing to expand its investment in the delivery of world class charging infrastructure, that makes range anxiety a thing of the past. It will support the delivery of a charging network that spans high density residential areas, apartment buildings, commuter corridors, along with tourism routes and destinations.
To support this rollout, we’ve now added a further $38 million in the most recent state budget, over and above the $171 million that we had previously committed. Through this additional funding, the new EV ready buildings program will provide $10 million of co-funding to help medium, to large strata buildings, to retrofit their EV charging infrastructure, further supporting New South Wales residents who live in high density areas, where off street are charging and building retrofits are not possible.
We’re also investing a further $10 million to install curbside EV charging infrastructure in those high density areas. 18 million has been allocated to roll out more fast charging stations with more high capacity charges in areas with limited off street parking. And this will be an expedited rollout and between these initiatives, we are ensuring future EV drivers, no matter where they are, we’ll have access to a range of public charging options. We are also determined to unleash new industries with our $250 million renewable manufacturing fund to boost local components manufacturing for EVs.
New South Wales will continue to partner with other jurisdictions on initiatives to increase the number of electric vehicles in Australia and address barriers to their efficient integration into the electricity grid. Our state chairs across jurisdictional EV community of practice, to share updates and progress on electric vehicle policies and programs. We also chair the net zero futures policy forum with Scotland and all late states and territories from Australia are members.
Transport emissions were established as one of the forum’s first three key priority policy areas and were determined to lead the way on reforms to road user charging, and then seek to negotiate interstate arrangements that increased harmonization. New South Wales has announced that we will introduce a road user charge of 2.50 cents per kilometer to ensure that all drivers pay their fair share of road use, but only from July 1, 2027, or when electric vehicle sales make up more than 30% of new car sales.
As someone who is already a proud owner of an EV, I want the benefits of quieter, cheaper, greener cars to be accessible and available to everyone. It’s good for the planet and it’s good for our economy. So I look forward to working with you as we accelerate the transition and to an electric vehicle revolution. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, treasury. We might just keep you online to hopefully take one or two questions. We have our roving mics out the back, and if anyone would like to pop their hand up, we can get it across to you. And there’s one just right here. Also, I’m not sure minister, if you can see us. Yep.
Toby Roxborough :
Hello, Minister. Toby Roxborough from EV Marketplace. We are looking to get a manufacturing support base. And you mentioned your New South Wales manufacturing fund. What can we do in regional New South Wales, say South New South Wales, we’re in the ACT, there’s a region here to support supply chains. We’ve got leading manufacturers like Tridium in this room. We’ve got, how can we get together and support supply chains and the little parts and that make the big parts. So can you suggest anything in terms of what New South Wales government plan is for regional New South Wales and manufacturing?
Matt Kean:
Thanks Tony and thanks for the initiative that you are showing in this space. As I mentioned, we’re determined to unleash new industries here in New South Wales. And that’s why we’ve put real money on the table to support initiatives like yours. It’s $250 million we’re putting on the table for our renewable manufacturing fund to boost local component manufacturing for EVs right here in New South Wales, that’ll be a reverse auction process.
So we would welcome bids from component makers like yourselves to participate in that underwriting where it… That won’t matter whether it’s in the regions or in the cities. We want to make sure that we catalyze the development of new industry when it comes to providing the essential materials for electric vehicles right here in New South Wales, and New South Wales government is backing it in with real money on the table.
Greg McGarvie:
It’s Greg McGarvie representing EMMA, Electric Mobility Manufacturers Australia. We’ve got 20 members all in the manufacturing area, or producing electric vehicle solutions across every sector. And many of us have been in this industry for up to six years. The issue here is supply chain. The other issue of course, is what government is doing to actually support entrepreneurs here in Australia, trying to make things move. Interested in your view on that.
Matt Kean:
Well, Greg, thank you and supply chain is a huge concern to me. We’ve got enormous resources here to take advantage of the move towards a low carbon economy with our renewables, but I want to see us turning our natural resources into new industries, new jobs, and new opportunities. That’s one of the reasons that we’re putting money on the table, real money on the table, $250 million in our renewable manufacturing fund to boost the manufacturer and supply of componentry for not just electric vehicles, but we’ve got other programs to produce the materials that we’re going to need across our whole supply chain to upgrade our electricity system, and to take advantage of the move towards that low carbon future.
So we’ve got a billion dollars on the table here, our net zero industry and innovation fund to help the New South Wales economy to decarbonize whilst creating jobs and growing our economy. So we look forward to working with businesses like yours and many people in the room to develop a manufacturing industry here in New South Wales, around renewables, around clean tech. We see that as a great opportunity for our economy and help in a way that we can help the rest of the world, meet their low carbon ambitions as well.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, minister and treasurer. We’re all delighted that you kept this portfolio despite your many responsibilities. And thank you for joining us here today and a round of applause for the treasurer minister.
Matt Kean:
Thank you everyone. Thanks for having me.