AAA Submission: Fuel Efficiency Standards for Light Vehicles

The AAA has long supported the Commonwealth introducing an efficiency standard, which could help Australia maintain access to a first-world vehicle fleet. However, a poorly designed standard and overly stringent targets would deliver bad outcomes for both consumers and the environment.

The AAA submission to Cleaner, Cheaper to Run Cars: The Australian New Vehicle Efficiency Standard  consultation process highlights the need for Government to better demonstrate how it has balanced the Standard’s ambition and achievability, and calls on the Government to share analysis of how its preferred model will affect the 9.3 million members of Australia’s motoring clubs.

Economic analysis by The Centre for International Economics (commissioned by the AAA and attached to the submission) suggests compliance with the Government’s preferred model would require very dramatic changes to Australia’s passenger and light commercial fleets. This analysis quantifies the relative price changes needed to shift motorists’ behaviours and preferences.

The submission also flags the issues relating to growing EV uptake which the Government must urgently address, including Australia’s roll-out of charging infrastructure; skills shortages; and the inequity and unsustainability of the current motoring taxation regime.