Australia: an auto backwater

The $4 billion or so in current industry assistance should be put out to tender for manufacturers prepared to build highly fuel efficient vehicles like petrol or diesel/electric hybrids. The know-how is here. Ten years ago the CSIRO and Holden spent $12 million on a demonstration hybrid ECOmmodore that halved petrol use but without financial incentives and a political and regulatory environment that ignored both global warming and peak oil, it was mothballed.

It would be even better to move to plug in, no tailpipe emission, electric vehicles. These are now being made in the US and Europe with ranges of more than 100km and speeds of 70-80kph. They currently fall foul of our safety rules largely because they need to be light weight. London however has thousands of India-made Riva electric cars on the road. Mercedes Smart for Two electric cars are available there now too, encouraged by registration discounts and exemption from the congestion tax.

Only the Vectrix fully electric motorcycle has so far been approved for Australian roads. It costs only $45 a year to run and even using coal fired electricity is responsible for a tenth of the CO2 of its petrol-powered equivalents.

We need to roll out hundreds of smart-card operated pavement power posts. Electric wheelchair users would benefit and our air would be so much cleaner.

Australia is an auto backwater and if no serious reform comes out of Labor’s auto review we will lose both an industry and the opportunity to be part of a technologically, socially and environmentally better world.