So it’s on – Australians will go to the polls on the 18th of May and already the level of hypocrisy and scaremongering from the right is staggering. Let’s have a look at one issue they’ve been particularly vociferous about so far; Electric Vehicles and Labor’s plan to have 50% of new vehicle sales to be EVs by 2030.

First the hypocrisy:
Here’s a report prepared for the Government in May 2018 – it’s what they’ve based most of their own paper-thin EV strategy on. It’s 103 pages so I won’t bore you with it all, but it’s worth remembering the Coalition has had this detailed information for 11 months and has published it on the arena.gov.au website, so they vouch for its veracity.

Here’s a couple of salient points though:
Scomo and his front bench have attacked Labor’s goal of 50% of sales by 2030 saying it’s unrealistic and that Bill Shorten is trying to take Tradie’s utes away from them and ruin the weekend. (As if the Libs didn’t do that already by abolishing penalty rates, but I digress.)

However, the report clearly shows that by 2030 forecasted EV sales will organically be at 25% of all new vehicles, 50% with mild Government intervention (Labor’s Plan) and a whopping 70% with accelerated Government intervention.

The other point Scomo and his mates have been particularly derisive about is the Labor claim that EVs in the future can be charged in 8 – 10 minutes. Liberals attacked this claim fiercely yet the PEV Adoption report, their own published information, says otherwise.
“Energeia analysis on the cost to fill up a PEV found that over the next 10 years, PEVs could expect to pay around $11 to fill up their 100 kWh tank at the local DCFC station in about 5 minutes or less, whilst the same fill-up would take 4 hours (parked at work during the day or at home overnight)”

In addition Energy Minister, Angus Taylor, proudly trumpeted late last year that funding for a network of rapid charging stations from Brisbane to Adelaide via Sydney and Melbourne had been allocated. In the same press release, he said that charge times would be around 15 minutes.

Now the misinformation:
The Labor plan is for 50% of new car SALES to be EVs by 2030. Liberal and their supporters are deliberately misrepresenting this to be 50% of the entire Australian fleet of 19.2 million vehicles.
“I think the problem with this is, Bill came up with this plan last Monday and it’s clearly not thought through,” Scott Morrison told Sydney radio 2GB. I mean he reckons that 50 per cent of the cars that we all are driving around in 10 years from now will be electric cars.”
I challenged somebody on Social Media last week when he made the same claim, and he conceded the point, albeit ungraciously, and then proceeded to repeat the claim in his very next post. I’ve seen the 50% of all vehicles claim made so often on social media it can only be a concerted effort to muddy the waters.

Then there’s the “we don’t have the electricity resources to cope” argument. Well, the Liberals have factored this into their Electric Vehicle policy and haven’t raised it as an issue. Perhaps that’s because of this: https://arena.gov.au/blog/renewables-lowest-cost-aemo/?fbclid=IwAR3Rl-MaoT8Ggk2Prjioxtmw4Fwiasntb2l5EBAdz_GrzHdglFVOHci0CeU
Yep, the good old arena website shows the Government has had information since July 2018 which says renewables will cover our capacity needs easily.

The Bill Shorten is going to take your car away argument is a beauty too! How’s Bill going to do that? Has he suddenly turned into David Copperfield and is able to make millions of vehicles disappear with the swish of a cape?

No need to worry – It’s 50% of sales, that’s 10 years into the future and then it’ll take decades for natural attrition to render the internal combustion engine obsolete.

Your car won’t be going anywhere unless YOU choose to sell it and buy an EV.

It’s true that early adopters of EVs will have less infrastructure and range than when the EV becomes commonplace and charging options abound.

My Opinion:
I see the EV initially as being a great option for the second family car. It will be ideal for suburbanites who have a secure garage that enables them to charge the car overnight. They will use it to run the kids to school, run errands and commute to work. In other words, it will replace the Toorak tractor they currently drive.

The Government will eventually have fast charging infrastructure nationwide and this will be a major source of revenue for them. People will be able to drive coast to coast, stopping for 10 minutes or more to charge and refresh themselves every 400km which is the recommended long driving practice anyway.

As the number of EVs on the road become commercially attractive, savvy businesses will buy in, create a competitive advantage, and provide EV charging while you eat your Big Mac, get your hair cut or catch a movie.

The Liberal rhetoric around this topic has been disingenuous, at odds with their own published documents and a carefully orchestrated scare campaign almost completely devoid of the truth.

The question that all voters should ask themselves before casting their ballot on May 18 is this:  If they are deliberately distorting the truth and inciting unnecessary fear on this issue when their own research supports and compliments it, what else are they lying about.

Scomo? Hell no!