No, the new car emissions standards won't take away your Ford Ranger ute or Toyota LandCruiser SUV: Why you should embrace, not fear, cleaner cars for Australia | Opinion

“SUV, Utes deliver record January sales - and challenges for proposed NVES.”

That was the headline from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry (FCAI) when it released the new car sales data for January earlier this week. NVES is the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, the Federal Government's long-awaited and long-overdue move to bring Australia inline with the rest of the developed world. At present Australia and Russia are the only developed automotive markets in the world without any emissions reduction targets like the ones being proposed.

The Australian car industry hid behind local manufacturing for decades, allowing all cars imported into the country to be less efficient than they could be in order to avoid higher production costs for Holden, Ford and Toyota. But those companies stopped making cars here years ago and yet we still haven’t played a very necessary catch-up.

Last December the government announced the so-called ‘Euro 6d’ emissions standards would come into force in Australia from December 2025, which is great… until you realise they’ve been in place in Europe since 2021. So we’ll be nearly five years behind our European car-buying friends.

The government’s latest proposal takes these plans a step further, proposing an implementation on January 1, 2025 with a target of reducing emissions steadily from 2025 from 141-grams CO2 per kilometre for passenger cars and 199g/km for light-commercial vehicles to 58g/km for cars and 81g/km for LCVs by the end of the decade.

That is an ambitious goal, but it’s also just that - a goal. And despite what all the naysayers and fear-mongers are screaming already, this is a good thing. 

Yes, it will mean change. Yes, it will likely mean more hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. But no, the government will not come for your ute or your SUV. Instead, you’ll no longer be saddled with outdated technology that car companies are selling in Australia to maximise profits and avoid spending their own profits on developing cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.

Why should Australians get treated like second-class citizens with older, less fuel-efficient cars dumped on us? Don’t fall into the trap of being told these rules are ‘too ambitious’ or ‘unrealistic’ - this is action the industry should have taken years ago and chose to avoid.

It’s a bit like avoiding doing your homework and then complaining when the teacher gives you a test at the end of the year and you fail. It’s not the teacher’s fault you skipped the hard stuff.

Any yet, the car industry’s peak body is already rushing straight into its fear campaign to try and get these regulations watered down as much as possible - hence the headline on the sales data press release.

Tony Weber is the FCAI Chief Executive, but the peak body is funded by the car brands and the biggest-selling brands will naturally get the most say, so remember that when you hear or read anything he says.

“The continuing preference for SUVs and utes demonstrates the challenges the Commonwealth Government is facing as it works to introduce a New Vehicle Emissions Standard (NVES),” Weber said in his press release.

“Industry wants an emissions standard that is ambitious without limiting the choice and increasing the cost of the vehicles Australians need and want.

“Even with the current incentives offered by the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments, sales of battery electric vehicles appear to have plateaued during recent months.”

Take a look at the mix of models the biggest-selling car brands in the country sell and see how many of them are electric - that’s the clue to understanding where they fall on this matter. But it’s also a very disingenuous way to look at the sales figures.

Electric vehicle sales were up 161 per cent in 2023 over the previous year, but Weber and the FCAI decided to focus on the fact that January figures were only 0.8 per cent up on the previous year. However, that glosses over the fact Tesla had a quiet month in January ‘24 compared to the previous year, with only 1107 sales compared to 3313 in January ‘23. In December last year, Tesla sold 2192 cars, so does a bad month for Tesla deliveries mean EV sales have “plateaued” as Weber suggests?

Weber spoke with the ABC and admitted freely that the FCAI hasn’t had time to fully analyse the impact of the changes, but it didn’t stop him from trying to push the agenda that these changes are potentially harmful.

“On the surface, the targets seeking a 60 per cent improvement in emissions are very ambitious, and it will be a challenge to see if they are achievable, taking into account the total cost of ownership," Weber reportedly said.

"We are concerned, and we haven't done the analysis, that this gets in front of the technology curve.

"And that means that vehicles would be more expensive or we won't be able to provide some vehicles to the market in certain segments."

"My greatest concern without doing the analysis is around utes, especially 4x4 utes and large SUVS.”

Please, go back and re-read those quotes. Weber is saying, even though the FCAI hasn’t actually analysed the details, he thinks ute and SUV owners should be afraid. That just doesn’t make sense, showing a bias towards creating a climate of fear rather than a measured response that considers all the details in due time.

Let’s be clear - these regulations are tougher but they will not force every Australian into an electric car overnight. But that is an easy fear to play on with us, the car-consuming public. Scott Morrison infamously did it during an election campaign, saying that electric cars would “end the weekend” and deny tradies their beloved utes. Which was complete and utter crap, and if Morrison didn’t know that then he didn’t understand the car industry at all.

To be clear, this isn’t a political ideology issue either, although the previous Coalition government definitely dragged its feet on this issue, but one that should be centred around you and your needs as someone buying a car.

Yes, utes and large SUVs will likely be the vehicles most impacted by these changes, because they’re the vehicles emitting the most CO2. Whatever your views on global warming, we can probably all agree we should be trying to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere if we can. And reducing the amount of CO2 coming from the cars we drive is actually a simple way to do that.

As I’ve written before, the ute in particular has become a lifestyle vehicle for so many Australians, rather than a workhorse. We bought almost 240,000 utes in 2023 - are there really that many tradies needing a new vehicle seemingly every year? No, I know plenty of ute drivers that bought it for the tax break, the tough look or the practicality. 

While genuine tradespeople and off-road adventures will still need to buy utes, there should be plenty of buyers that can make a switch to a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle when the time comes.

And for all I’ve said about not buying into the naysayers and the negative messaging, equally you shouldn’t believe anyone telling you that every Australian will be driving an electric car by 2035. That is pure fantasy.

Some countries may reach that target, but they started over a decade ago and heavily incentivised buying electric. Crucially, incentives are not part of the government’s proposal at this stage. Which is actually what many in the industry argued for - a target but the option to achieve it however each car company sees fit, whether that be EV, PHEV, sustainable fuels or something else.

Australia is too vast and diverse for EVs to be the answer for everyone. We still need to have freedom to pick a vehicle that best suits our needs, not be railroaded into a particular technological basket. 

For example, while the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T and Tesla Cybertruck show progress in the electric ute space, the reality is these vehicles will simply not meet the needs of all users.

By the same token, for many of us, we can choose to make a more efficient choice. Speaking from experience, I had a friend who was tempted to buy a hot hatch, something fun and sporty but a bit thirstier than the average hatchback. Ultimately, weighing the amount of urban commuting he did, he opted for a compact hybrid vehicle instead and is pleased with his smaller fuel bill each month. Moving forward, more of us may need to make similar choices when we weigh the fuel bill with the cost of the car - but that’s always been the case when it comes to selecting a new car.

No-one has a crystal ball to see the future, so exactly what impact these changes will have on our roads and climate in the next decade and beyond is unclear. Remember, when Australia introduced compulsory seat belts, there was an outcry about that, but we had to start somewhere on improving safety and look where we are today. 

The bottom line is you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and start moving forward. So don’t get sucked in by the campaign of fear from both the industry and politicians - realise that this is about you getting cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, which will ultimately be a positive. Despite what some headlines may imply…