Bushfires should make us reassess electric car craze

As people lined up to get fuel to evacuate fire regions over summer, you have to wonder what would’ve happened if they’d had to wait for an electric vehicle charger, writes Peta Credlin.

There was a lot of hype this week about the “tripling” of electric car sales.

Yes indeed, they’d gone from 0.2 per cent of all car sales in 2018 to 0.6 per cent last year. With not quite 7000 electric cars sold in Australia last year, that’s a little over one half of one per cent of the million or so new cars that were sold.

Now, if people want to drive an electric car, you won’t get any complaint from me, provided there’s no taxpayer subsidy. Yet two years back Treasurer Josh Frydenberg put forward $100 million to help people buy electric cars – some as high as $260,000 plus – with buyers usually the type who can readily pay for it themselves.

And as people lined up to get fuel this summer to evacuate fire regions, what would have happened if they’d had to wait for the one or two fast chargers, taking a couple of hours at a time, rather than 10 minutes at the bowser? And how would electric fire-trucks work!

A sign at a petrol station in Moruya showing they ran out of unleaded petrol. Picture: Sean Davey

The climate barrackers say that it will all be OK once the government subsidises the installation of fast charging stations plus boosts the subsidy to electric cars (even though they’re all made overseas).

But this is precisely the problem. Everything recommended in the name of combating climate change turns into socialism masquerading as environmentalism. More taxes, more subsidies, more regulations and more government control.

Make no mistake, much of the climate cult is a Trojan House that conservatives should never drag into the heart of their policy citadel yet the usual moderates were at again in the Coalition’s party room last Tuesday.

Now, I’m all in favour of protecting the planet, and want clean water, clean air, pristine beaches and beautiful bushland as much as anyone. And I want lower emissions too. Provided that does NOT mean unaffordable, unreliable electricity; the destruction of heavy industry; the disappearance of meat from our diets; animals from our farms; and drastic changes to everyone’s lifestyle, and country.

Originally published as Bushfires should make us reassess electric car craze