• Peak motoring body AAA supports Opposition policy to offer EV tax breaks.
• More details needed on future tax reforms and road funding as fuel excise declines.

The nation’s peak motoring body welcomes the federal Opposition’s commitment to champion targeted tax breaks that can fast-track the uptake of electric vehicles in Australia.

The Australian Automobile Association agrees that relief from import tariffs and fringe benefits tax for vehicles costing under $77,500 is an appropriate incentive for Australian consumers, and one that recognises that Australia’s uptake of new technology is slower than that occurring elsewhere.

AAA Managing Director, Michael Bradley, said both the Government and Opposition were faced with the twin challenges of finding ways to incentivise the uptake of electric and other zero emission vehicles, while simultaneously ensuring our tax system and electricity network are ready for the dramatic changes occurring in the global car fleet.

Mr Bradley said: “We need to very quickly move beyond the political debate of whether electric vehicles are good or bad, and instead focus on whether Australia is prepared for their imminent arrival.

“The investments being made by the world’s carmakers clearly reveal a future in which electric and hydrogen powered cars are the norm, not the exception, meaning we need to be much further progressed in our planning,” he said.

“What we see in today’s announcement from the Opposition is a welcome commitment to find new ways to relieve the costs of electric vehicles, increase demand for them, and ensure more of them are brought to Australia.

“It is a sensible step towards meeting our environmental and taxation challenges in a manner that protects consumer choice,” Mr Bradley said.

Australian motorists will pay almost $38 billion in fuel excise over the next three years, with the Federal Government relying on this revenue to fund $37.5 billion worth of land transport infrastructure. The forecast uptake of electric vehicles in Australia poses significant revenue challenges for the Federal Government, and raises real problems of fairness and equity while electric vehicles remain outside of Australia’s road user charging regime.

In the count down to the next federal election, motorists will be looking to all sides of politics to clearly articulate how they intend to fast-track the uptake of zero emissions vehicles in a manner that addresses the long-term challenge of how we fairly and sustainably pay for the nation’s road network.

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Media contact:
Jake Smith
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