2016-05-18
Western Australia will have thousands more electric vehicles and 39 more charging stations by 2021 under a Green’s plan to build a pollution free transport future.
The plan will fund free registration for the first five years after purchase of a fully electric vehicle and provide $151 million in grants to support local governments, state governments and car park operators to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Greens Senator for WA Scott Ludlam who visited the Tesla factory in Fremont, Oakland in 2014 said electric vehicles were being seen on roads across Australia and charging stations needed to be installed to cater for the growing market.
“We have a big state with vast driving distances so governments need to provide charging stations to cater for the growing market of electrical vehicles,” he said.
“Electric vehicles are following the trend of solar panels and becoming cheaper. We can close the loop and power our cars with free energy from the sun using rooftop solar.”
The plan will also provide:
· $50 million nationally in grants to support government and non-government organisations to meet the gap between the cost on electric vehicle and a conventional vehicle
· Increasing the luxury car tax to 50 per cent for conventional fossil fuel vehicles over $100,000 to provide to drive consumer choices towards electric vehicles
· Including firms involved in electric vehicle manufacturing in the government’s Automotive Transformation Scheme to grow the jobs and skills in the new electric vehicle industry.
The plan will help to get 31,000 more electric vehicles on the road by 2021 and 330 more charging stations across Australia.