Why Australian drivers could even be worse off under Albo's fuel efficiency standards

Major concerns have been raised that the Albanian government's new vehicle efficiency standard could leave Australians worse off.

The federal government will introduce laws next year that will set new vehicle efficiency standards that will require car companies to deliver fuel-efficient cars to buyers.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Transport Minister Catherine King announced the news on Sunday, claiming Aussies could save as much as $1,000 on fuel.

Concerns have been raised over whether the overall cost of car ownership could outweigh the savings on fuel, effectively leaving Aussies worse off.

A national automotive group feared the change would lead to half of all car sales being electric by 2030 – with the vehicles significantly more expensive than petrol cars.

Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, said the government did not provide a breakdown of the total costs when making its savings claims.

“Those (total costs) include maintenance, insurance, of course the fuel price, but very importantly the purchase price and the level of depreciation,” Mr Weber said. The Australian.

Motor Trades Association of Australia CEO Matt Hobbs said if 4WD sales were paralyzed, many car sellers would go out of business.

'That is the lifeblood of dealers. If that dries up, a lot of dealers will go out of business,” he said.

He said if standards are tightened to reduce CO2 emissions by 60 percent by the end of the next decade, it will mean sales of petrol cars will have to be drastically reduced.

'To achieve that goal and not pay a price for it, at least 50 percent of all new cars will have to be electric by 2029.

'There are no combustion engines that can achieve that number, not even very small cars, so you can't actually sell them. Hybrids, if it's a very small car, maybe (could reach the norm).

'This is not a ban, but as the targets become stricter, car companies will need to figure out how to compensate for this or otherwise look at which vehicles do not meet the standard.'

Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie pointed out that the only electric car available in Australia, the LDV eT60, costs $93,000, compared to just $52,000 for the years-long best-selling Toyota HiLux.

The Toyota HiLux has long been a sales leader in Australia, but it will largely have to make way for an electric car to meet government emissions reduction targets

Mr Bowen said the scheme would see no one pay extra for a vehicle as manufacturers would be forced to bring more efficient models to Australia that are currently only sold overseas.

He also argued that because the standard applies to the entire fleet, it simply meant that dealers would have to increase their EV sales.

Dramatically increasing the number of electric vehicles sold is crucial to the Albanian government's ambitious goal of reducing emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.

In 2023, electric cars accounted for just eight percent of new cars sold and this will need to rise to almost 100 percent of sales by 2035 to meet the government's target of completely eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector by 2050 .

While charging an electric car at home is a relatively cheap option, it became publicly more expensive last month as Australia's second-largest EV charger provider increased prices at its stations by a whopping 43 percent last month.

Even before this car website CarExpert revealed that on long car journeys it was cheaper to drive a car with a combustion engine than an electric car.

On a 900km drive from Sydney to Melbourne conducted by CarExpert, the EV cost around $13 more in power than its petrol counterpart – and required an additional two hours of stop time to refuel.

CarExpert founder Paul Maric told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday he feared the gap would widen.

“Electricity prices have never fallen, so it will only get more expensive,” Mr Maric said.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said emissions standards will force car sellers to import more fuel-efficient cars for the Australian market

“They (governments) want everyone to run these things, but at the end of the day they're just not affordable.”

He said that until now, electric vehicles had largely been the preserve of higher income earners, mainly because buying them could be used as a tax offset for other income.

“If you just think about the average Australian right now who's just struggling to put food on the table and you're talking about a vehicle like the Tesla Model Y that starts at $70,000 regardless of the tax incentives, then that's still a big a lot of money,” he said

“A lot of this stuff is a pipe dream that really only benefits people who are already rich.”

He also said that because the federal government gave private companies money to install chargers, but not for maintenance, many were broken.

“Public charging infrastructure is developing so slowly that unless you can charge at home, you can't charge electric vehicles anywhere because the chargers are broken or there aren't enough of them,” he said.

Mr Bowen said the new emissions standards would be legislated as “soon as possible” and come into effect from January 1 next year.