Thought I'd send some posts as too much info not only to disseminate but for you to take on board fully.
The Australian government has announced a AU$6 million investment in an “ultra-rapid” electric vehicle (EV) charging network powered by renewable energy across the nation under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
According to the federal government, the EV charging network will be deployed around Sydney and Melbourne; between Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, and Adelaide; and across Western Australia.
The drive to electric vehicles promises a better future — but there is a road rage battle brewing, pitting petrol guzzlers against their green successors on how we should be paying for our roads. Key points:
For each litre of fuel you buy, you are contributing around 40.9 cents to the Government's coffers to build and maintain roads
But the development of more fuel efficient cars means less fuel is needed — and so less tax is paid
Electric vehicles present an even bigger problem — if your car does not require fuel, then you are not contributing at all
It has been recognised for a while that the drive towards electric vehicles could see us run into a major budget black hole, but last month the Parliamentary Budget Office warned just how bad the problem was.
Fuel excise, a primary source of income for the Government, has already fallen 30 per cent as a share of GDP between 2001-02 to 2016-17 (from 1.6 per cent to around 1 per cent).
"Right now, there is a burning platform," said Adrian Dwyer, chief of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, which has made a submission to the Senate committee on electric vehicles.
Mr Dwyer said now was the time to start to replace fuel excise with a more sustainable funding source.
Mr Dwyer agreed no tax changes should be made that make electric cars less attractive — "we should be encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles, by removing the upfront impediments, things like luxury car tax and import duties, they'd reduce the sticker price of electric vehicles" — and said it made economic sense that people should instead be paying for when they use public roads.
The rising popularity of electric vehicles will drive Australia off a fiscal cliff unless our system for funding roads is changed soon.
