The Illusory ‘Cleanness’ of Electric Vehicles Will Soon Hit Home Here
According to their supporters, the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia continue to surge ever upwards as Australia embraces the dream of clean, green EVs which will shortly replace petrol, diesel and gas-powered vehicles as the energy source of choice for personal and commercial transportation.
EVs have been sold in Australia for at least the past 15 years, but the uptake has been relatively low, due to the high purchase price, limited range, difficulty in recharging – which took hours to complete – limited number of recharging stations, high insurance and other issues.
Since the Albanese Government was elected in 2022, it has introduced several programs to accelerate the sales of EVs in Australia. On April 19 last year, the Federal Government announced its National Electric Vehicle Strategy, designed to offer greater EV affordability, improved access to charging stations, and “a massive reduction in emissions”.
As Australia’s electricity system which charges EVs is overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels, particularly coal, it is disingenuous to say that more electric vehicles will lead to a reduction in emissions.
The relatively low efficiency of coal-fired power plants, where the efficiency is typically around 30-40 per cent, is just the start of the problem. Electricity must be delivered to the EV charging station, with losses of a further 15-20 per cent, then into the EV’s battery, with losses of 10 per cent, then back to electricity to power the EV, with losses of a further 10 per cent. All these energy losses compound.
In contrast, the efficiency of petrol engines is usually around 35 per cent.
Committed
Nevertheless, the Federal Government is totally committed to replacing petrol or diesel-engine vehicles with EVs.
In announcing the EV strategy, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen promised a better choice of electric vehicles, which would encourage greater use of cleaner, cheaper-to-run vehicles.
He said:
“The Government will introduce a Fuel Efficiency Standard, working with industry and the community to finalise details in coming months.
“Fuel efficiency standards are standards which outline how much pollution – or specifically, CO2 – a car will produce when it’s running.”
Bowen’s definition of fuel efficiency is designed to make it look as if electric vehicles have zero emissions, when in fact they require higher emissions of carbon dioxide (in the generation of electricity) than petrol or diesel vehicles.
Is he seriously suggesting that EVs don’t cause carbon-dioxide emissions in generating electricity, or maybe that their electricity comes only from wind and solar power? It’s all very slippery.
Apart from that, the Government also introduced generous subsidies for electric vehicles.
Bowen said:
“The Government has already cut taxes on EVs through the Electric Car Discount, saving up to $11,000 a year on a $50,000 electric vehicle. Thanks to the Albanese Government’s leadership, two and half times more EVs are being sold this year than they were at this time last year.”
Declining Popularity
Apart from the direct subsidy, EV owners do not pay the very high petroleum taxes that are intended to meet the cost of the upkeep of Australia’s roads.
Apart from this, the Federal Government contributed $39 million to develop a national EV charging network across Australia, with matching grants from the states and territories, along with $60 million in installing EV charging stations in car dealerships and repair yards across the country.
It will also provide up to $80 million on its “Hydrogen Highways” project, to help the transport industry buy “hydrogen cell” trucks and build renewable hydrogen refuelling stations across the country. Both these technologies are completely unproven, either in Australia or internationally.
In light of all this, it is not surprising that the number of EVs sold in Australia more than doubled between 2022 and 2023. As Bowen proudly said: “We are gaining ground. Already EV sales are 8.4 per cent of all new light-vehicle sales in the first three-quarters of 2023, compared to 3.8 per cent for all of 2022.”
Even in saying that, he is admitting that over 90 per cent of new vehicles are fuelled by petrol or diesel.
In European countries which have been subsidising EVs for years, EV sales have recently fallen when subsidies have been reduced or removed. In Germany, home of Volkswagen, BMW and Audi, EV sales fell 23 per cent in the year to August 2024, following the removal of subsidies. There’s a lesson here for Australia.
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Republished with thanks to News Weekly. Image courtesy of Adobe.
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Why should tax payers be subsising well off people to affford an EV
Have they considered the pollution caused by the tyres of much heavier EV’s
Is there enough electricity in the grid to charge even 25% of vehicles on the road being EV’s.
Where is all this electricity going to come from ? Already there is talk of possible power shortages. Seems we must buy EVs ( which are known to suddenly combust ) if we want China to buy our lobster, wine, etc. I would not park one near or in my garage.
Thanks Peter. If only Mr Bowen would read the stats, humble himself, and tell Australians what a pipe dream he is chasing – for the benefit of us all.
While I agree with much of this article, the section talking about ‘efficiency’ is very poor. The trouble with the word ‘efficiency’ is that it has so many wildly different definitions. It would be much more effective to talk about ‘losses’ in the process of energy generation and transmission, which is done in some measure. The ‘efficiency’ of a coal plant is largely irrelevant, since that only means what part of the energy bound up in the raw material is converted into the final energy result. The real question here is more of an economic one – is it economically effective, and it is.
Sadly when the alternative – the internal combustion engine is compared we only hear of an efficiency of 35%. Is that the heat efficiency or the volumetric efficiency or the fuel efficiency? Are there any losses involved in the production of refined petroleum? Of course there are, and they are many. Once it’s refined it has to be transported by pipelines or trucks – is that more ‘efficient’ than powerlines? Incidentally the loss figure on power transmission of 15-20% seems wildly exaggerated – it should probably be around 2-6%*.
We need to be careful to stick to the truth when we are arguing. The article is largely correct that electric cars are only as clean as the power generation that charges them. We don’t need equivocation and incorrect information to prove this simple point.
*Source for information of transmission losses https://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost-in-transmission-how-much-electricity-disappears-between-a-power-plant-and-your-plug/