Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

Parties get behind green roads and carbon reduction with major push for electric cars

byMark Bowling
5 April 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Electric cars: Almost 60 per cent of all new cars sold in Norway in March were fully electric, a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fuelled vehicles sales by 2025.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Electric cars: Almost 60 per cent of all new cars sold in Norway in March were fully electric, a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fuelled vehicles sales by 2025.

LESS than two years ago, Pope Francis received a new electric car from European vehicle maker Opel, to help the Vatican on its way to become the world’s first “carbon” free country.

The gift was made during a conference about Pope Francis’s 2015 ecological encyclical Laudato Si’, that highlights the “intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet”.

Electric vehicles are becoming big business around the planet.

Almost 60 per cent of all new cars sold in Norway in March were fully electric, a global record as the country seeks to end fossil-fuelled vehicles sales by 2025.

Last year, Norway’s fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 per cent market share (it was 20.8 per cent in 2017), far ahead of any other nation, and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.

It’s a different story in Australia where EV sales make up just 0.2 per cent of the car market. 

Other nations in the slow lane are China where EV sales are 2.2 per cent of the car market and the United States with 1.2 per cent.

Labor wants to catch up with a pledge, if it wins office, to set a national electric vehicles target of 50 per cent new car sales by 2030, and 50 per cent for the government fleet by 2025.

“Do we want to be a country stuck in the past? Or a country joining the rest of the world in the future?” Opposition leader Bill Shorten said launching his party’s climate change policy on April 1 with an emphasis on electric cars.

“I’m bullish about (electric vehicles) for the jobs, for the local manufacturing opportunities, for the climate impact, and also, I think because it will create technology.”

Related Stories

From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

Queensland Christian voters contributed to ALP’s poor election result, report finds

I spy something beginning with K: Josephite nun says Witness K and Bernard Collaery are scapegoats

Labor argues transport accounts for 20 per cent of Australia’s emissions, which can be reduced while at the same time helping Australians save money at the petrol bowser.

“One of the problems is there’s not enough charging stations,” Mr Shorten said.

“(We’ll) put a network of charging stations right around Australia and on national highways, so that people can actually seriously contemplate being able to get an electric vehicle.”

New residential and commercial developments, as well as federal road upgrades would have to include electric car charging stations under the plan.

As well as a national EV target, the plan would dramatically increase the number of electric cars in Australia by giving businesses a tax deduction of 20 per cent depreciation for private fleet EVs valued at more than $20,000.

Norway has many bright ideas to help consumers swap to EV – plug-in electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids) including access to bus lanes, free use of toll roads and ferries and free municipal parking.

Mr Shorten aims to slash carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. 

But at the moment Australia lacks federal policies to reduce or reverse petrol emissions, so it’s unclear how Labor would actually achieve its goals, especially if they remained reluctant to impose costs and tariffs on high-emitting cars – a strategy that has worked internationally.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government had already taken steps to improve the growth of electric car sales.

“Labor, as I understand it, are talking about taking in 10 years 0.2 per cent of the (electric vehicle) market to 50 per cent,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“He needs to explain how he’s going to make that happen.”

Meanwhile, one Queensland company Ace EV launched its first electric vehicle on April 2 – Ace Cargo, a small delivery van that will hit the market at $39,995, to be followed up with a small ute, the Ace Yewt,  and a city car.

Ace EV claims its vehicles will slash running costs, with estimations of around $1.80 per 50km, compared to the petrol average of $9 per 50 km.

The Logan-based company plans to build 100 Ace Cargo delivery vans by the end of this year, hoping to find a market with fleet buyers like Australia Post.

All three models are based on a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic shell and will have a top speed of 100km/h. 

Cruising range will be between 150km and 200km and the Lithium battery packs are rated at 23.2kWh, according to Ace EV’s website.

By comparison, the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer, Volkswagen recently announced it would build 22 million electric cars by 2028.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

St Patrick’s Church turns 100, parish celebrates faith and community in the light of Christ

Next Post

Good teaching habits – Kenyan Franciscan friar wins $1 million Global Teacher Prize

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

News

From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

23 May 2022
Australia

Queensland Christian voters contributed to ALP’s poor election result, report finds

15 November 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
News

I spy something beginning with K: Josephite nun says Witness K and Bernard Collaery are scapegoats

11 November 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Next Post

Good teaching habits – Kenyan Franciscan friar wins $1 million Global Teacher Prize

Five newly-married 20-somethings share of God’s plan for their discernment, marriage and 'home'

Franciscans, students, parishioners – Kedron celebrates 50 years of Little Flower Church

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping