Chris Bowen ditches doomed EV sales target

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has walked away from Labor’s target to have 89 per cent of new car sales electric by 2030, casting doubt on the government’s green agenda.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has walked away from Labor’s target to have 89 per cent of new car sales electric by 2030, casting doubt on the government’s green agenda.

After The Australian revealed Mr Bowen’s electric vehicle strategy was on track to fail with government departmental officials predicting fewer than a third of new car sales would be battery operated by 2030, the Labor frontbencher claimed there was no target.

“We don’t have a particular EV target,” Mr Bowen said on Wednesday morning.

“We have a determination to give Australians more choices. So many Australians come up to me in the street and say, I’d like my next car to be an EV but I’m not really seeing the range of choices that are affordable.

“And they’re right because there are many more affordable EVs that are available in other countries that aren’t available here because we don’t have efficiency standards.”

The government appears to have dumped its own target after The Australian reported that the latest estimates from the federal transport department were that electric cars will make up 27 per cent of new car sales by 2030, well below the 89 per cent forecast in Labor’s pre-election modelling that helped boost its 43 per cent emissions reduction target.

The 89 per cent prediction in Labor’s modelling conducted by RepuTex was based on Anthony Albanese’s pre-election policies that have been implemented since the government was elected, including exempting electric cars from import tariffs and fringe ­benefit taxes.

The department also estimates electric cars will account for 5 per cent of nation’s small vehicle fleet by 2030, a third below Labor’s pre-election modelling of 15 per cent.

The claims come after the nation’s top employer groups slammed the EV targets saying they would make little to no contribution to meeting Labor’s 2030 emissions reductions target.