National Electric Vehicle Strategy (2022)

Policy Engagement Overview

InfluenceMap has detected that the overall engagement with the fuel economy standards in the October 2022 National Electric Vehicle Strategy consultation is largely supportive of stringent CO2 standards. Entities holding supportive positions included cross-industry business associations and utility companies, while automaker positioning ranged from negative to positive. However, much of the supportive engagement around potential Australian CO2 standards for vehicles did not advocate for specific high-stringency standards, instead only offering broad support for introducing CO2 standards.

Policy Engagement Trends

• Overall engagement with the National Electric Vehicle consultation appeared to be positive, with a total of 31 companies and industry associations in InfluenceMap's database submitting a response to the consultation in October 2022. Of these respondents, 18 entities (58%) appeared supportive of ambitious standards, 4 entities (13%) appeared to oppose stringent CO2 standards for vehicles, and 9 entities (29%) took an unclear, mixed, or no position on such standards.
• Support for a stringent fuel economy standard was expressed by entities such as the Electric Vehicle Council, Tesla, Macquarie Group, Clean Energy Council and Energy Efficiency Council. All groups advocated for Australia to introduce CO2 standards for vehicles in line with those in either the EU, US and/or New Zealand in their consultation responses.
• Automotive-sector opposition to a stringent fuel economy standard is led by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), and the automakers (and FCAI members) Hyundai and Toyota Motor. FCAI and Toyota advocated in the October 2022 NEVS consultation to introduce low-stringency CO2 standards aligned with FCAI voluntary standards (100g/km CO2 for light-duty & 145g/km CO2 for heavy-duty SUVs and light-commercial vehicles by 2030) that are less stringent than EU CO2 standards for light-duty vehicles, introduced in 2020. FCAI, Hyundai, and Toyota also conditioned their support for CO2 standards on numerous qualifying factors, including introducing consumer incentives and charging infrastructure development, and that the standards be based on Australian market conditions. Other automakers, such as Ford Motor and Mitsubishi Motor, did not appear to take a clear position on CO2 standards in their consultation responses.
• Many other groups stated general support for introducing CO2 emissions standards for light-duty vehicles in Australia, without clearly referencing a level of ambition supported. These include AGL Australia Business Council of Australia, BP, and Origin Energy.

Engagement on this policy is ongoing, lobbying details, and trends will be added here as they become available.