Country's epic EV milestone highlights Australia's shame

Norway this week announced it now has more electric cars on the road than petrol cars, with the northern European nation aiming to be the first to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars altogether by 2025. But while EV uptake in Australia grows, experts warn we're still "very, very far behind".

Currently, about 7 per cent of all new car sales in Australia are electric — similar to the US but far below the global average of 18 per cent — and not even close to rates in parts of Europe and China. In 2022, the global average was 14 per cent.

In Norway, much of the country's EV success can be attributed to early adoption, many years before the first EV touched down in Australia. Norwegians also benefit from a range of government incentives to encourage motorists to turn electric.

Thanks to the country's sovereign wealth fund, which is now worth more than US$1.7 trillion (A$2.5 trillion), the government has been able to offer incentives to drivers, such as exempting them from paying the electric car buyers tax, in a bid to lure them into going electric.

There is still some work to do in Norway. Of the 2.8 million private cars registered there, 754,303 are now all-electric, compared with 753,905 that run on petrol, but diesel models are the most popular with just under a million on the road.

Australia lagging 'very far behind' European countries, China, when it comes to EV sales

Norway's sovereign wealth fund has grown to this point largely thanks to the money the country makes from exporting oil and gas — something we also do a lot of here in Australia, but we have no such fund bankrolling driver incentives. Speaking to Yahoo News, Swinburne University's Professor Hussein Dia said Australians could have undoubtably benefitted from such a scheme.

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"It would help if we had one," Dia told Yahoo. "The government's priorities are just not in the right place, but they can find the money to build nuclear submarines, worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

"Both the major political parties have been dragging their feet for a long time around new vehicle efficiency standards, it's only as of last year that we now have a blueprint, which will help to build the stockpile of electric vehicles."

Drastic measures needed if we plan on meeting climate targets, expert warns

According to the Climate Change Authority, which provides critical scaffolding for our climate ambitions, to reach net zero emissions electric vehicle sales must hit 32 per cent by 2035 for an overall goal of 100 per cent by 2050. But according to Dia, that's an ambitious target. Not, he said, because of an unwillingness to go electric among the public, but due to a lack of government enthusiasm.

"If we play it harder, we could actually reach net zero by 2040. But in that case, we need to increase the electric vehicle adoption rates to 65 per cent by 2035 and I really think that's unrealistic," he said.

"But it really boils down to government commitment. We need more charging infrastructure first, cheaper EVs, more awareness."

Slowing us down even further is the cost-of-living crisis, with drivers in 2024 hesitant to make any financial decisions that aren't completely necessary.

"This year we might see a little bit of reduction and probably stagnation," Dia said of EV sales. "We're not going to see the same exponential growth, but still China is on fire when it comes to sales.

"We're starting from behind. Government policies are not as strong and as supportive as they are around the world, and that means it is going to take us much longer."

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