Turnbull calls Coalition’s electric vehicle campaign ‘peak crazy’

Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Scott Morrison’s campaign against Labor’s electric vehicle policy as ‘peak crazy’.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP

Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Scott Morrison’s campaign against Labor’s electric vehicle policy as “peak crazy”, saying the Prime Minister’s claim that EVs lack grunt “could only be made by someone who hasn’t driven one”.

Mr Turnbull blasted the ­Coalition’s criticisms of electric cars, just days after Mr Morrison accused Bill Shorten of trying to “end the weekend” by forcing Australia­ns out of their four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Mr Turnbull joined wife Lucy and son Alex in expressing frustration at the direction of the debate. “Of course they work. I’m not in politics any more. I don’t have to engage in peak crazy. The tech­nology is ever-expanding,” he said.

Mr Morrison said this week that Labor’s plan to lift electric car sales from 0.2 per cent to 50 per cent of new cars sold by 2030 would deny Australians the “grunt” they desired.

“The sort of vehicles that Bill Shorten wants you to drive, you can’t get one for less than $45,000 and it won’t tow that boat. It won’t tow that trailer,” he said.

But Mr Turnbull said EVs could be both powerful and fast, a statement backed by YouTube videos showing a Tesla towing a Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner, and another showing a Tesla beating a Ferrari in a drag race.

In an article written for The Guardian yesterday, Alex Turnbull said the government’s attacks on EVs ignored the benefits of an EV-led battery boom in Coalition-held mining seats.

“Kalgoorlie (in the Liberal-held seat of O’Connor) is well known for its gold production but is also becoming a centre of lithium product­ion as well as finding new battery demand for its nickel mines,” he wrote.

Lucy Turnbull earlier threw her support behind the Opposition Leader’s claim that EVs could be charged in eight to 10 minutes.

As the government ramped up its attack on Labor’s EV policy yesterday, Skills Minister Michaelia Cash claimed a Shorten government would force half of all tradesmen out of their utes. “We are going to stand by our tradies and we are going to save their utes. Because we understand choice and that is what Bill Shorten­ is taking away from our tradies,” she said.

Mr Shorten dismissed the comment­ as ridiculous, saying “no one’s going to make you give up your ute; no one’s going to confiscate it”. “But the idea that we shouldn’t be looking for more fuel-efficient vehicles is silly,” he said.

“The government has said that electric vehicles, for example, will lead to a reduction in the costs of running a motor car, and the same will be the case with fuel standards and fuel emission standards, so we’ll get it right.”

The Coalition supports electric vehicles, backing new charging infrastructure and factoring in an EV uptake of 25-50 per cent by 2030.

But it has not set an EV target, as Labor has, or embraced a new carbon emissions standard for ­vehicles. Mr Shorten compared the debate­ over EVs to that around the introduction of unleaded fuel, which some had claimed would end the car industry.