Major car brands accused of trying to write 'loopholes' into Australia's looming fuel efficiency laws - eviltoast
  • TinyBreak@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Where’s the consumer incentive to go green? The wait time on a hybrid toyota is 2 years. Mazda and Kia both have hybrid or in some cases plugin hybrid of their flagship SUVs, but not available in Aus. A plug in hybrid Outlander costs you 25k ontop of a standard petrol outlander. I WANT to do the right thing, but I’m not given the choice.

    • Having recently had an outlander as a hire car overseas I’m amazed that anyone would willing subject themselves to one as a daily driver. What an absolute peice of shit lol. For the money of the flagship PHEV outlander, you could get an EV6 or Tesla model 3.

      Anyway the actual green decision is to drive less and use alternatives more. However that’s not an option for some.

      • Nath@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        I drive an old Outlander (10 years old), and rather like it. I mean, it’s a basic enough family car. It doesn’t do anything fancy. But it doesn’t give us any grief, either.

    • Salvo@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      This is how free markets work. Increased demand for certain variants of a product will inflate the price of that product accordingly.

      It is worth contemplating that due to some manufacturers complete disregard for the environmental damage from mining Cobalt and Lithium (as well as the societal damage from Conflict Mining), a large EV may be more destructive than a modern ICE vehicle.

  • thisisnotcoincedence@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    If government invested in a renewables program by installing charging stations almost equal to the amount of fuel servos we have, and heavily incentivise electric vehicles we would see a major transition without car manufacturers shoving corruption in our faces and money towards lobby groups.

    • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
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      1 year ago

      Unlikely. Car manufacturers don’t particularly care how you’re going to charge it. That’s a you problem not a them problem.

      They’re resisting because Oz has been a place they can dump polluting cars that are cheap to make. The big markets like EU and California have mandated EVs, if they can delay the cutoff here it buys them time to do the ramp ups they should have been doing for a decade.

      Toyota in particular is the worst culprit, they spent a lot of money in the US trying to prevent ICE being banned, because they bet on hydrogen and lost, now they’re doing exactly the same delay tactics here.

      • thisisnotcoincedence@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Thanks for the input. I hope I was at least making sense previously even though it was more of a utopian society that we’d probably get to see something like that.

        I’m not having kids, but I’d like for the youth of today to grow up in a more eco friendly lifestyle without the need for gas in the future.

        • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
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          1 year ago

          You’re not wrong that more chargepoints help, it reduces EV resistance and range concerns, and hence helps consumers be willing to buy EVs.

          It won’t stop legacy ICE lobbying to delay mandatory cutoff on ICE sales.

          They (collectively) have $trillions invested in ICE factories and engine designs etc that become valueless when ICE are banned. As VW found out leveraging existing factories is ineffective, you need to build for EV manufacture, which means billions in written off assets and years of delay for legacy auto.

          If they can convince any market to delay the ban that’s literally dollars in the bank and bonuses in pocket.

      • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        Car manufacturers don’t particularly care how you’re going to charge it

        Bullshit. Of course manufacturers are concerned about charging networks. If you can’t charge their car you won’t buy their car.

        they bet on hydrogen and lost

        How so? Hydrogen hasn’t been banned anywhere. There’s still a lot of implementation problems but it’s a pretty neat tech. There’s 3x huge solar projects going ahead in West Aus to crack water and produce hydrogen.

      • Hypx@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        BEVs are a greenwashing scam. They are frankly just a ploy by corporations to be dependent on their product just like we are to oil. In fact, it’s even worse since it is part of the Chinese government’s agenda to of dominating the car industry. Much of what we hear may legitimately be propaganda from the Chinese government.

        Toyota is fundamental correct in their assessment. The BEV is destined for failure since it has no purpose but the serve some specific group or interest. As a result, they’ve invested in alternative ideas such as hydrogen cars. Instead of being the curve, they are likely far ahead of it. It is everyone else that wasting all of their resources on a dead-end.

        • Quokka@quokk.au
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          1 year ago

          What nonsense.

          Battery power is a technology that is continuing to grow with billions being poured into it from every industry imaginable.

          The only people who want garbage like hydrogen are those who want to maintain the status quo of fuel being supplied by a few big producers at a pump.

          • Hypx@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You’re just promoting BEV propaganda. And being a stooge of the Chinese government, the only group that even benefits from BEVs displacing all local car production. It is not a revolutionary technology. It is an obsolete idea from the 19th century. It is a greenwashing scam to think it has any real merit.

            Meanwhile, hydrogen is made from water and represent an actual green technology.

            • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              What local car production? There is none in this country.

              I want a BEV car because I can charge it for free with the solar panels I already have on my roof. That benefits me - not China.

              As for Hydrogen… whatever advantages it has are irrelevant since nobody sells an affordable and practical hydrogen car. I’m sure hydrogen will be a viable option one day, but it’s not right now or in the near future.

              • Hypx@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                The goal is to eliminate all car companies that isn’t controlled by China.

                You don’t own any of the supply chain that provides the batteries and solar panels. The West barely makes solar panels because China’s strategy already succeeded.

                No one sold a BEV a dozen or so years ago. People are just complaining rather than pushing for change.

            • Marin_Rider@aussie.zone
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              1 year ago

              do you actually know how hydrogen power works? hint: its not just chucking water into some sort of hydrogen engine

              • Hypx@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Hydrogen is electrolyzed from water. It is basically a battery made from water. It is a much better idea than a battery made from expensive metals that have to be mined in vast quantities.

                • Marin_Rider@aussie.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  and you must surely be aware that there are significant challenges in making this a commercially viable consumer technology, right?

                  im not anti hydrogen at all, its actually one of the main reasons i invested in FMG, but being against electric cars because you think hydrogen is better is frankly weird given that electric cars exist now and are starting to become more affordable for everyday people

    • zurohki@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      They are funding charging stations, and the networks are pretty decent now for long trips.

      There’s still holes that need filled in, especially when you get away from population centres and main roads, but you can drive from Port Douglas in far north Queensland to Adelaide in any new EV.

      Adelaide to Perth is currently a no. There’s a 2000km stretch with one fast charger. Not impossible, but it means several days of slow charging along the route.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    They will see the Earth scorched along with everything that walks, crawls, flies, swims or grows here before they give up their lucrative gig at the omnicide factory. Irredeemable.

  • Quokka@quokk.au
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    1 year ago

    Why is ”slightly less bad” the angle were letting either the government or companies argue over for?

    We should be demanding massive increases to PT and walkablility with a decrease to car ownership.

    • Baku@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      It’s all about the 💸💸💸. I don’t even necessarily mean the money states have at their disposal for public transport projects, it’s also about the money that rich people with vested interests in seeing more people driving cars quietly slip into the pockets of pollies

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Fears are growing that Australia will continue to be a dumping ground for dirty and inefficient vehicles, as the federal government designs laws to limit the carbon emissions of new cars sold.

    And the debate is getting divisive, with Elon Musk’s Tesla and the Climate Council even accusing Australia’s biggest car lobby of pushing a “loophole” policy that could slow the transition.

    The vast majority supported the general premise of the standards, including submissions by Tesla, the Climate Council, Toyota, Hyundai, and Australia’s biggest car manufacturer lobby group, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

    InfluenceMap’s program manager Ben Youriev told ABC News that the FCAI has led a “strategic” and “negative” campaign against climate policy.

    “We’re focusing on getting the design of the fuel efficiency standards right,” the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen recently told the ABC’s Q+A program.

    The federal government’s expected to announce a clearer policy position on its looming fuel efficiency laws by the end of the year.


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