EV PROPONENTS are using the rate of adoption of battery electric vehicles in Norway as a strong lesson for BEV policy in Australia but, according to VACC chief Geoff Gwilym, there are compelling reasons for Australia to learn from Norway but they are not the ones everyone is talking about.

Mr Gwilym said that Norway has unique incentives that other countries could not match and a unique power generation environment but there were lessons that could be applied to Australia from Norway by applying some lateral thinking.

Mr Gwilym, CEO of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC), has just completed a three week fact-finding mission to Europe as part of a delegation from Australian motor trades associations from Vic/Tas, NSW, Qld, WA, SA and NT.

The delegates visited industry groups and policy makers in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

Mr Gwilym told GoAutoNews Premium: “I think there are really important lessons we can take from Europe and from Norway.

“But the mistake that we don’t need to make is to pretend we are Norway, because we’re not,” Mr Gwilym said.

“Norway made a decision more than 10 years ago to take some of the money from their oil and gas sovereign wealth fund to actually start to convert their vehicle fleet across to EVs.

“There were huge sales tax exemptions on EV purchases and reductions or exemptions on parking charges, tolls, ferry fees, public charging etc; all subsidised by the government from that fund

“If you needed a new car in Norway then it was a no-brainer that you bought an electric car.

“But other countries, including the European ones that we visited, have done less well with EV adoption. And they’ve struggled because they haven’t thrown the billions of dollars at it that Norway has.

“I think that is a big challenge for countries, because often countries look at Norway and they say: ‘Well, that’s the benchmark, we need to do that’.

“But other countries don’t have the benefit of the sovereign wealth fund. The Norwegians are the wealthiest people in the world because of that fund but other countries do not want to pay the bill or they don’t realise the amount of money that you need to actually get people out of internal combustion engine vehicles and into EVs. And even now in Germany, the UK and Sweden they’re starting to draw back some of those incentives.”

Mr Gwilym said that he estimated that Australia is probably eight to 10 years behind Norway but a completely different set of circumstances will apply to the take-up of EVs in Australia.

“When we look at the reality of it here, I have a feeling that unless we are going to have incentives that are collectively around the $15,000 mark, are you really going to have enough incentive to get people to move into electric cars?

“At the end of the day, across those countries that we visited, there was one thing that was abundantly clear; the more you incentivize an electric car market, the more people engage with it and the sooner you get to fleet conversion targets.

“If you have low incentives – the average incentive in Australia is $3,000 at a state level – that is nowhere near enough to get somebody to make the decision to buy an electric car instead of an internal combustion engine car.

“It is just not enough to bridge the gap between the comparative pricing of the electric cars we have here and an internal combustion engine vehicle.”

Mr Gwilym said that EV policy lessons for Australia should look at incentivizing middle Australia and low income earners to buy EVs. That’s where you need to get traction. The people who can afford EVs will make their own moral decision about whether they want to buy a greener vehicle or not.

“It is the people who cannot afford to buy another car. How are you going to get them across?

“How are you going to help people with young families who are on one income? How are you going to get them to make a decision to give up their internal combustion engine and buy an electric vehicle? Those are the policy settings that need to be put in place in Australia,” he said.

Referring to power generation for EVs, Mr Gwilym said: “We don’t have the same level of hydro power that Norway has nor the same level of wind power. All of their power is wind and hydro with back-up gas if they have a shortage. But basically, it’s wind and hydro.

“They have big rainfall in the mountains; half of it freezes, which means you get half of it in the winter, and you get the other half in the summer when it melts. It is a magnificent hydro environment. To some degree Sweden is the same and Germany, just to a lesser degree.

“So Norway is a great example but it is an example that should be taken with caution because we don’t have those same advantages.

“However, the view in Europe is that Australia has a similar advantage, but from solar energy; that solar for us is actually similar to their advantage in hydro.

“So I found it quite interesting that these countries would say to us: ‘We’ve got hydro, but you guys have got lots of space and lots of sun. So why couldn’t you do the same using solar?’

“They saw a complete parallel between what they’d achieved in hydro, and what Australia could achieve in solar. And they saw Australia as being a potential EV leader in the region.

“So I think, as a group, we came back quite positive about other people’s expectations about Australia and our capability. And that’s not because Australia is doing particularly well in electric vehicle sales. It’s more what those other countries said to us. And what they said to us is that Australia can be a leader in EVs in the Asia Pacific region.

“They also pointed out that Australia can leapfrog a lot of the challenges they have had. For example, in some cities they are taking out small public chargers, because they’re not fit for purpose. And they’re upgrading them. We won’t need to do that because we can learn from their mistakes. So there is a lot that Australia can learn that will help close the gap,” Mr Gwilym said.

By John Mellor