Queensland has scored 6/10 rating in the Electric Vehicle Council policy scorecard, after continuing to expand its Electric Vehicle Super-Highway.
The ratings are contained in EVC's State of Electric Vehicles 2021 report, launched today. The report also finds 8688 electric vehicles were sold in the first half 2021, already eclipsing the 6,900 electric vehicles sold over the whole of 2020.
NSW narrowly beats the ACT (8/10) and the NT and Tas (7/10). Qld, SA, Vic, and WA scored 6/10. The federal government gets the lowest rating with 3/10, after failing to make meaningful inroads in line with other comparable jurisdictions around the world.
Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari said Queensland was at a tipping point.
"Queensland has leveraged its early leadership in electric vehicle infrastructure by continuing to expand its Electric Vehicle Super-Highway," Mr Jafari said.
"The state is currently consulting to update its electric vehicle strategy, having been the first state in Australia to develop one in 2017. To increase its grade Queensland should increase the scope of its Electric Vehicle Strategy to include financial incentives for the purchase of EVs in line with other states.
"The movement across most states and territories is now generally positive and that's providing greater confidence to private sector investors, which will pave the way for more places to charge and better services to support e-mobility. The chief headwind at the moment is, unfortunately, a continued lack of leadership on electric vehicles at the federal level. After promising a national strategy two years ago, the Federal Government has failed to deliver.
"We need to see more electric vehicle models in Australia, particularly at lower price points. That's happening slowly, but if we want to accelerate the process and attract the globally limited electric vehicle supply, we need policies enacted at the national level, like fuel efficiency standards.
"Australia has more to gain than most countries on electric vehicles. If transition well we'll be able to meet our net zero goals, break our dependency of foreign oil, and improve our air quality.
"When you consider the rhetoric that was being pushed last federal election, the EV discussion in this country has come a long way quite quickly."
