Motor vehicle fumes kill 1700 a year, says electric car lobby

The Electric Vehicle Council has claimed that 1700 Australians are dying every year from ‘air pollution from motor vehicles’.

The Electric Vehicle Council’s claim that 1700 Australians die each year from car emissions exceeds last year’s national road toll by more than 500 deaths. Picture: iStock

The Electric Vehicle Council’s claim that 1700 Australians are dying every year from “air pollution from motor vehicles” ­relies on five-year-old international modelling and exceeds last year’s national road toll by more than 500 deaths.

The national electric vehicle industry lobby group, appearing at a joint select committee road safety hearing on Tuesday, has told a parliamentary inquiry that reducing vehicle emissions is a “vital part of making our roads safer”.

In its submission to the road safety committee, the industry group said estimated savings for each electric vehicle replacing an internal combustion engine ­vehicle were “$2400 in health costs”.

The Electric Vehicle Council said its research showed in the Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong region there were “60 per cent more transport-related deaths from (the emissions from) road vehicles than road tolls”.

“A holistic approach to health and road safety would ensure the total impacts of vehicles are mitigated across sectors, including public health. There should be equal consideration given to deaths resulting from vehicle pollution as to deaths resulting from road accidents.”

The deaths figure stems from a 2017 discussion paper written by the university-led Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, which used international data to determine that vehicle-related air pollution killed nearly 2000 Australians in 2015.

The international study on which the universities’ report relies found that 4800 Australians died from air pollution in 2015, but doesn’t include a breakdown for car pollution specifically.

It’s unclear how the universities calculated the death toll, but Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari told The Australian he believed the figure would be even higher than the 1700 cited in his submission.

“We’re quite comfortable with it,” Mr Jafari said of the claim. “It’s actually quite conservative because not all air pollution is created equal and emissions have certainly gone up since then.”

Mr Jafari said it was time the government started including emission-related health impacts in its road fatality data.

“The fact we have quite scant knowledge of emissions-related deaths shows no one is taking it seriously,” he said. “We very ­accurately measure deaths from crashes such as door crumpling, but when it comes to exhaust fumes we have very little knowledge about it and have to rely on old data, which makes the issue difficult to fix.”

In a separate submission, Australia’s National Transport Research Organisation cited overseas crashes involving autonomous and electric vehicles, and concerns over battery fires and driver-assistance technology. The ARRB said the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Traffic Safety Board were investigating crashes since 2017 ­focused on driver-assistance technology and significant battery fires in electric vehicles.

“Current estimates suggest that it takes on the order of 2000L of fluid to extinguish a petrol vehicle fire while it takes up to an astounding 20,000L of fluid to distinguish an electrical vehicle fire; while a typical fire truck carries up to 4000L of fluid,” the submission said.