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Arguments against the use of electric cars in Australia
1. Electric vehicles are too expensive for most consumers
The cost of electric vehicles is a major factor currently making them not viable for the Australian market.
On March 7, 2019, Carsales published an advice column which opened, 'Plenty of objections have been raised against EVs, chief among them the purchase price.' The piece went on to claim, 'No one cares about the environment if doing the right thing is going to cost the consumer big bucks.'
A Nielsen survey released on October 28, 2019, indicated that about 50 per cent of those who said they would buy an EV would only pay between $20,000 and $30,000 for a new car. This puts an EV outside their acceptable price range even for a vehicle at the lower end of current prices, such as a Hyundai IONIQ, which retails from $45,000.
A study released by the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) in July 2019 found that although electricity is a significantly cheaper fuel than petrol or diesel on a per-kilometre basis, depreciation and the high purchase price of pure-electric vehicles mean they are significantly more expensive to own over the first five years.
According to the report, a Hyundai Kona Electric Highlander would cost owners $13,431 annually - assuming the car covers around 15,000km - compared to just $8501 for a front-wheel drive Kona Active, or $11,384 for a larger Tucson Active SUV.
The Hyundai Ioniq Electric Elite is Australia's cheapest pure-electric vehicle at $44,990 before on-road costs, but it still was $1441 more expensive per-year to run than the base Kona in the RACQ's calculations.
News Corps reporter and columnist Sam Clench has noted that high prices have been a long-standing feature of EVs offered for sale in Australia. Clench has stated, 'The Mitsubishi iMiev arrived in 2010, with a range of just 150km and a hefty price tag of $49,000. The Nissan Leaf was about three times as expensive as a comparable petrol-powered car. The Holden Volt cost $60,000. Only the super-rich could hope to afford the more glamorous Tesla Roadster at more than $200,000.'
The former federal energy minister - and the current Treasurer - Josh Frydenberg has indicated that price is one of the key obstacles preventing widespread uptake of EVs in Australia. Frydenberg stated, 'The reason why Australia has such a poor level of take-up rate for electric vehicles is because they are expensive compared to other cars, thirteen out of sixteen of EVs that are on sale in Australia cost more than $60,000.'
This high barrier for buyers was compounded by a lack of federal subsidies, which have acted as a key driver for the uptake of EVs in other countries.
2. EVs do not have sufficient charge and there are insufficient charging stations
Those who dispute the practicality of EVs for Australian conditions refer to consumers' concern that an electric car will not have a large enough charge to reach the desired destination and that charging infrastructure will not be available.
An article published in FinFeed on September 18, 2019, stated, 'The lack of a robust charging infrastructure is a major concern for most Australians, fueling "range anxiety" - the fear that your EV doesn't have enough charge to cover your trip or make it to the next charging station. While Australians see the benefits of EVs - 79 percent feel they have a responsibility to set a good example for future generations - three in four consumers feel there is a lack of public charging infrastructure.'
It has been claimed that although the average Australian driver covers only moderate distances in daily journeys to and from work or meeting other basic transport needs, Australia is a very large country and when travelling for holidays and other recreation purposes the charge of an EV will not be sufficient and there may be no depot at which to recharge.
This point was also made within the FinFeed article which states, 'The challenge comes when we go on holidays, when we go down the coast, up the mountains, out in the bush. How do we ensure we have enough charge? This is where investment in infrastructure is require on our highways, in our outer-suburbs and in our country towns. We are looking then for fast charging, rapid charging.'
A similar point was made by David Sullivan, head of Electrification Products divisions at ABB (a Swiss company specializing in in robotics, power, heavy electrical equipment, and automation technology), in a comment published on September 19, 2019 in Ocean Road Magazine. Sullivan stated, 'Long distance drivers need super rapid charging infrastructure on our highways, to allow us to drive the distances we have in Australia comfortably and feel reassured that we will never run out of charge.'
There have been numerous claims that the assurances now being given about the range of new EVs and the availability of charging depots cannot be relied upon. In a letter from the editor of Wheels magazine published on January 20, 2019, Alex Inwood stated, 'Wheels has driven more electric cars in the past two months than it has in the last decade and the overall experience has been fraught. It's true we drove them much further than 32km a day, but the issues have been numerous. Cars have thrown up catastrophic system errors and refused to move, software glitches have drained batteries at fearsome rates, charging stations have been non-responsive or equipped with the wrong type of plugs, cars have arrived with no charging cables at all, and the overarching experience has been one of real-world driving seeing most fall disappointingly short of their claimed ranges.'
The letter continued, 'This magazine's EV mega test, which as far as we can tell is the first of its kind in Australia, was especially ambitious and challenging. It did, however, cement one irrefutable fact: 'range anxiety' is a truly appropriate label. Multiply the above problems across six cars over four days and it's little wonder that deputy editor Enright returned to the office a broken man, his face painted with the strange, grim expression of someone who has spent the last four hours in the left-hand lane on the Hume, his speed dropped below 90km/h, his nose tucked in behind a truck, his eyes glancing furtively at the battery gauge.'
Inwood concluded that Australians should not yet surrender 'range anxiety' as there are still a number of circumstances in which EVs will not have sufficient charge and there will be no opportunity to recharge. He stated, 'There's still a way to go before Australia feels properly EV ready'.
3. The availability of component metals and the ethics and environmental impact of battery manufacture are uncertain
It has been claimed that as car manufacturers ramp up production of electric cars, metals used to make the vehicles' batteries may face a supply crunch by the mid-2020s, according to a recent report.
A report from energy consulting and research firm Wood Mackenzie has indicated that lithium, cobalt, and nickel supplies are likely to be hardest hit. In July 2019, Gavin Montgomery, research director at Wood Mackenzie, indicated, 'Getting the quantity of nickel that (electric vehicles) will need by the mid-2020s will be a challenge ... with lead times often up to 10 years, investment needs to happen now.' The same conclusion has been drawn by metals company CleanTeQ's chief executive officer, Sam Riggall, who has stated, 'It's dawning on North America and Europe that there's a raw materials issue that needs to be addressed here.'
One of the world's major EV developers and manufacturers, Tesla Inc, has made similar predictions. Sarah Maryssael, Tesla's global supply manager for battery metals, has indicated that the automaker sees a shortage of key EV minerals coming. Of particular concern are copper, nickel and lithium.
Sarah Maryssael warned that, after years of under-investment in mining, materials used to make the batteries could soon be in short supply.
Electric cars use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. 'Smart-home' systems - such as Alphabet Inc's Nest thermostat and Amazon.com Inc's Alexa personal assistant - will consume about 1.5 million tonnes of copper by 2030, up from 38,000 tonnes in 2018.
It has been noted that sourcing materials for batteries takes more time compared with internal combustion engines, and this situation has been exacerbated as global demand for BEVs grows.
It has further been noted that limiting factors are not only the supply of component metals. The manufacturing process is complex and there is currently a lag in supply.
Roel de Vries, corporate vice-president, global head of marketing at Nissan, has stated, 'Batteries are not a commodity that you can just buy from somewhere else. They are part of the development of the car so, it is not something you can switch on and three months later you have it. They are a relatively big investment and they take two years to come into play.'
Additional concerns have been expressed about the conditions under which many of the world's EV batteries are produced, in terms of the ethics of employment practices and their environmental impact.
The scientific group, Security of Supply of Mineral Resources (SSMR), which includes geologists from Exeter, Southampton and Leicester universities as well as the Natural History Museum and British Geological Survey, has indicated that more than 60 percent of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where production controlled by Chinese traders partly relies on child labour and low pay.
In 2016, a Dutch advocacy group called the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (including those involved in component manufacture for EVs), known as SOMO, and Amnesty International put out reports alleging improprieties including forced relocations of villages and water pollution.
In November 2016 the World Economic Forum noted the environmental damage caused by the unregulated practices of many of those either mining for component metals or producing EVs' batteries. It stated, 'Battery production causes more environmental damage than carbon emissions alone. Consider dust, fumes, wastewater and other environmental impacts from cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; water shortages and toxic spills from lithium mining in Latin America, which can alter ecosystems and hurt local communities; a heavily polluted river due to nickel mining in Russia; or air pollution in northeastern China.'
Opponents of the use of EVs in Australia argue that the ethical and environmental concerns which would prompt many Australians to consider an EV are not being met by the way the vehicles batteries are produced.
4. EVs may not lead to a reduction in greenhouse emissions
It has been claimed that driving an electric car may result in more greenhouse gas emissions than driving a vehicle powered by a conventional internal combustion engine fueled by petrol or diesel.
Advanced Benchmarking Reporting Consulting (ABMARC) released a report prior to the last federal election which claims that greater use of EVs may cause an increase in greenhouse emissions as a result of 'Australia's continued reliance on coal-fired power stations.' ABMARC found that, on average, in New South Wales, Victoria, ACT and Queensland petrol vehicles 'provide less CO2 than electric vehicles.'
The concern is that as Australia's electricity generation is substantially fueled by polluting coal-fired power stations, driving an electric powered car simply transfers the source of the emissions to the power station rather than the car.This point was made regarding the use of EVs in Germany by Hans-Werner Sinn, professor of economics at the University of Munich in an opinion piece published in The Guardian on November 25, 2019. Professor Sinn stated, 'Electric vehicles also emit substantial amounts of CO2, the only difference being that the exhaust is released at a remove - that is, at the power plant. As long as coal- or gas-fired power plants are needed to ensure energy supply during the "dark doldrums" when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, EVs, like 'ICE vehicles, run partly on hydrocarbons. And even when they are charged with solar- or wind-generated energy, enormous amounts of fossil fuels are used to produce EV batteries in China and elsewhere, offsetting the supposed emissions reduction.'
Professor Sinn further claimed, 'Earlier this year [2019], the physicist Christoph Buchal and I published a research paper showing that, in the context of Germany's energy mix, an EV emits a bit more CO2 than a modern diesel car, even though its battery offers drivers barely more than half the range of a tank of diesel. And shortly thereafter, data published by VW confirmed that its e-Rabbit vehicle emits slightly more CO2 than its Rabbit Diesel within the German energy mix.'
The Austrian thinktank, Joanneum Research, has published a large-scale study commissioned by the Austrian automobile association, ÖAMTC, and its German counterpart, ADAC, that confirms Sinn's findings. According to this study, a mid-sized electric passenger car in Germany must drive 219,000 km before it starts outperforming the corresponding diesel car in terms of CO2 emissions.
It has been noted that EVs are only an environmentally friendly alternative in those countries that, unlike Australia, do not rely substantially on fossil fuels for their electricity generation. In an analysis published by the University of Sydney's Business School on May 6, 2019, it was stated, 'Many European countries, such as Austria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden use renewables to generate over 50 per cent of their electricity for home and industrial use. Utilising renewable energy makes electric cars a greener transport alternative in those countries than in Australia.'
5. There is an inadequate range of models and insufficient maintenance available
Critics of the potential use of EVs in Australia frequently condemn the limited range of vehicle types from which Australian consumers can choose.
It has been noted that worldwide there is a limited range of EVs being made available to potential consumers. In an article published in The Guardian on February 28, 2018, Adam Vaughan noted that carmakers have launched only a small number of fully electric models. There are just 20 battery electric vehicles on sale in Europe against 417 conventional petrol and diesel ones, according to lobby group Transport & Environment. Some of the electric models, such as the Opel Ampera-E - known as the Chevy Bolt in the US - are on limited supply and have months-long waiting times.
However, though the range of vehicle choice for EV consumers is limited internationally, commentators on the Australian situation have noted that it is far worse here.
In Australia, there are currently 22 electric vehicles on the market. Only nine of these are battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 13 are plug in hybrids (PHEVs). Six of these vehicles are under $65,000 AUD. The largest vehicle segment is the SUV (sports utility vehicles).By 2020, it is expected that nine more electric vehicles will be available: six BEVs and three PHEVs.
However, there have been criticisms that this is insufficient and that too few of the models which are available international have been introduced into Australia.
Despite many car manufacturers releasing new EV models, very few of them are available here.
Chris Jones, national secretary for the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, an organisation which seeks to promote EV use in Australia, has stated, 'The main reason there is low take-up is you can't buy them... Sure, EVs have been here since 2010, but always in limited numbers. Car companies need to do more than dip a toe in the water from time to time.'
In 2019/20. high-end brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Porsche, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Audi and BMW are all bringing pure electric models to Australia. However, Jones says it will be the more affordable vehicles from mass market brands like Mazda, Hyundai, Holden, Ford or Toyota that will really kick-start EV sales.
Anne Still, the Royal Automobile Club's (RAC) general manager of Public Policy, has claimed that while interest in EVs remains high, the lack of choice at a variety of price points is slowing down adoption. Still has noted, 'Certainly, there's more work to be done enticing [Australians] and encouraging manufacturers to make sure those vehicles come to Australian shores and consumers have access to those vehicles.
Australians' intentions to buy a new car appear to have declined through 2019. This has been in part attributed to the slow arrival of new EV models on Australian shores. It has been claimed that the relative delay in making electric vehicles available on the Australian market and therefore lack of choice is one reason behind the desire to wait to purchase. This delay of the arrival of EVs in any great numbers also gives manufacturers time to offload ICE vehicles before electric vehicles become fully accepted among Australian car buyers.
In an opinion piece published in The Guardian on January 31, 2018, Royce Kurmelovs argued that in the absence of a car manufacturing industry in Australia, the country's potential EV drivers are dependent on imports and importers are unlikely to risk their vehicles in a country where there is no clear government support for EVs.
Kurmelovs stated, 'With Australia now wholly reliant on imports, the country is at the mercy of global markets. And as there are currently only a finite number of electric cars manufactured worldwide each year, car companies must think carefully about where to sell their cars, how many to send and how to price them.
This means Australia must compete for a share of global production against countries that have clear policy positions on climate change and electric cars.
Around the world, China, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, New Zealand and the UK have all acted with various degrees of intervention to encourage their take-up.'
Though the partial cause of the limited EV choice in Australia may be a lack of vigorous government support for the vehicles, this lack of choice is serving to dissuade Australians from deciding to move toward electric cars.