Australians will finally have access to smarter, cleaner, more efficient cars with the passage of New Vehicle Efficiency Standards through Federal Parliament today.
Today is a historic day. Finally, Australia has joined the rest of the world in having efficiency standards for new vehicles.
The Smart Energy Council has long advocated for strong fuel efficiency standards and the Australian Government first announced it was introducing these standards at the Smart Energy Council’s National Electric Vehicle Summit in August 2022.
We’ve been working non-stop to secure the government’s commitment to this major policy. Huge congratulations to Minister Chris Bowen and the Australian Government on the passing of this legislation.
Minister Bowen and the government have stood up to an outrageous scare campaign from the Liberal and National Parties and the fossil fuel car industry.
For too long, Australia was alone with Russia on the lack of fuel efficiency standards. That is no longer the case.
We would like to congratulate the Greens too, for negotiating a successful path forward on this important, and smart benchmark to decarbonise Australia’s vehicles.
With the right settings, this important policy could deliver up to $1000 in fuel savings per new vehicle by 2028, and will only apply to new cars, rather than existing vehicles.
The new Standards mean car manufacturers will have targets for average emissions per kilometre from new vehicles sold.
This has been a long time coming, but it finally brings us into line with comparable forward looking economies around the world.
Developing economies around the planet took this road long ago, it was past time we caught up.
