Victoria has seen keen interest in its newly announced electric vehicle subsidy, the first of its kind in Australia, with more than 400 registrations in the first week since the incentive opened on May 2nd.
Introduced after widespread criticism of the proposed electric vehicle road tax that went into effect in July, the system offers a $ 3,000 discount on cars priced below $ 68,700. It will be open for up to 20,000 purchases, although the size of the discount can be changed after the initial offer from 4,000 customers is completed.
“It was huge,” said Stan Krpan, head of Solar Victoria, a government agency that administers the program, a strong response in light of a recent Infrastructure Victoria poll of 70 percent of a 200-strong “citizen jury” Said they wanted to see a ban on sales of new gasoline and diesel cars by 2030.
“It was huge,” Krpan said of the reaction in an interview with RenewEconomy’s Energy Insiders podcast.
“We have around 400 customers already registered and I hear great things from the manufacturers and distributors.”
To put those numbers in context, total electric vehicle sales in Victoria were just over 800 in 2019, excluding Tesla cars.
The $ 3,000 discount is the first of its kind in Australia, despite the fact that the ACT government also abolished stamp duty on electric vehicles and offered interest-free loans. NSW also points out possible incentives such as stamp duty exemptions.
Krpan said the details of delivering the discounts are being worked out with manufacturers and dealers, even though companies like Tesla in that state had already deducted $ 3,000 from the price of the Model 3 SR +.
“The government was open to revisiting the program. Whether the value or the discount changes is checked for the next tranche. “
The Victoria government has also pledged to purchase 400 new electric vehicles to expand its fleet. According to Krpan, Solar Victoria has installed charging points in its Morwell offices in anticipation of the new arrivals.
At the Smart Energy conference on Thursday, Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio, defended the road toll, claiming that even that fee would save motorists $ 1,600 a year.
“I think if people do this for themselves, they will find that the road toll is a small contribution to our road system and most of all the savings from purchasing ZEV [zero emissions vehicle] On a street in Victoria, the small contribution to a reduction fee is dwarfed. “
She said her government is committed to decarbonizing transport and ready to fill the political vacuum at the federal level by working directly with other states on issues such as emissions standards.
“We also sent a really strong message to the Commonwealth government that Victoria is ready to get the ball rolling with other jurisdictions if you don’t advance emission standards for new vehicles.”
Additional reporting from James Fernyhough.
Giles Parkinson is the founder and editor of The Driven, and editor and founder of the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid websites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, former business editor and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review and owns a Tesla Model 3.