New Vehicle Efficiency Standards
The top barrier to increasing EV adoption in Australia has been the limited supply of EVs entering our market. While hundreds of EV models are available globally, only a fraction make it to Australia. This is about to change with the introduction of Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which has now been legislated and will commence in 2025.
The Electric Vehicle Council welcomes the Australian Government’s commitment to the NVES, which will help bring a wider range of EVs and fuel-efficient petrol, diesel, and hybrid vehicles to Australia, making cleaner, cost-effective transport options accessible to all Australians.
With rising fuel costs and heightened awareness of the health and environmental impacts of vehicle emissions, the NVES is a critical step forward in reducing costs and emissions across the board.
"Apart from Russia, Australia is the only OECD country not to have or be in the process of developing fuel efficiency standards. The lack of standards in Australia is cited as one of the key factors impacting on the supply of EVs into Australia. Why? Because while Australia doesn’t show leadership, manufacturers will prioritise those markets that do. It’s pretty simple. It means that consumers aren’t getting the choice available internationally, and as the world moves to more efficient and cleaner cars, we risk becoming even more of a dumping ground for older technology which can’t be sold in other markets."
Chris Bowen MP
Minister for Energy and Climate Change"Our Fuel Efficiency Standards cannot be a step forward from where we are today, they have to catch up to where the rest of the world is. We have to make that leap to catch up to where they are. We need to be on par with the rest of the world. Our friends across the ditch in New Zealand have gone from 3% to 10% in a bit over a year. So we know that that leap is entirely possible."
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Co-CEO, Atlassian"Consistent across the crossbench is our very firm commitment to getting this done. We’re ready to go, the whole country’s ready to go. Let’s do this."
Kylie Tink MP
Member for North Sydney"We’ve got to catch up to the rest of the world quickly, as quickly as humanly possible. So having a Fuel Efficiency Standard that doesn’t get us close to meeting the European or U.S. standards doesn’t cut it. Having that ambition of a global leading standard or at least in keeping with the global leaders is really, really important."
Robyn Denhom
Chair, Tesla"According to the AAA, petrol bills for families have reached, on average, over a hundred dollars for the first time ever. And there’s only really one sustainable and consistent way for us to help reduce families petrol bills. That’s by helping them use less of it in the first place, or in the case of electric vehicles, use none of it at all. The rest of the developed world has introduced for quite some time now very strict fuel efficiency standards or vehicle emission standards that encourage car makers to take their latest and best technologies to their markets first and deprioritise Australia."
Behyad Jafari
CEO, Electric Vehicle Council"We now need politicians to lead and ensure we have the policy and incentives to actually get this transition going. And my message to the government is simple. Be bold."
