“No coincidence” GM left Australia before pledging to abolish combustion engines: EV Council

Australian politicians have been accused of putting Australia behind global peers on progress towards electrification of the motor vehicle fleet – and even forcing General Motors (GM) to depart the Australian market in order to advance its global push for carbon neutrality.

GM unveiled an ambitious plan this week to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, meaning that both their factories and cars would only use renewable energy, while petrol and diesel powertrains will be abolished from the lineups of GM brands that include Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.

Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari said GM’s 2040 carbon neutrality target, that beats Ford to the punch by ten years, was proof Australia was being let down by its leaders.

“It’s no coincidence that GM decided to pull out of Australia shortly before making this announcement,” Mr Jafari said.

Australia currently has no emissions reductions targets for new motor vehicles, and even our fuel quality has been heavily criticised by the likes of Volkswagen for being near third-world standards.

There has also been a lack of consistent support for electric vehicle uptake, with no federal government subsidies in place to encourage people to buy EVs. The South Australian and Victorian state governments even proposed a tax in recent months on electric vehicle usage in a world-first move that astonished automakers worldwide.

Mr Jafari said these decisions had rubbed-stamped Australia as a low priority nation for electric cars among car manufacturers and left our market behind in the race to take up electric vehicles.

“Not only are we one of the only countries not to enforce fuel efficiency standards, we are the only nation proposing brand new punitive taxes on electric vehicles instead of incentives,” he said.

“The unimaginative and cynical approach our politicians have taken to electric vehicles in recent years means Australia is being left behind as the rest of the auto industry zooms ahead.”

GM officially killed off Holden as a brand in Australia in February 2020 in a move that was largely panned by local politicians, however, Mr Jafari said they only had themselves to blame.

“GM’s announcement underscores how fallacious the argument is that we can sit on our hands and just let the electric vehicle revolution happen to us,” he said.

“We need our politicians to wake up now and start investing in stimulating and encouraging the transition to electric vehicles before it’s too late.”