This got lost in the news last week due to you-know-what, but it's interesting for the fact that (a) we have an LNP government in this state and (b) the policy is arguably the most comprehensive released to date by any Australian government, however that is a pretty low bar to jump. Here's the link:
NSW Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Plan | Future Transport
The policy PDF:
https://future.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/documents/2019/Future Transport NSW Electric & Hybrid vehicle plan.pdf
The TL;DR version:
While a lot of it is the usual non-committal stuff, there are some specifics:
There's certainly nothing on subsiding EVs, but I think that the structural and policy barriers to EV adoption are more important to solve in the short term, cost a lot less money, and less of a lightning rod for the critics. The cost of EVs will sort itself out soon enough, particularly if government fleets are required to start buying them.
It's a start, so kudos for that.
NSW Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Plan | Future Transport
The policy PDF:
https://future.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/documents/2019/Future Transport NSW Electric & Hybrid vehicle plan.pdf
The TL;DR version:
While a lot of it is the usual non-committal stuff, there are some specifics:
- Set a 10 per cent target for new NSW Government general purpose passenger fleet cars from 2020/21 – with 10 per cent of new vehicles purchased or leased by agencies to be electric or hybrid vehicles.
- Co-invest in fast chargers in regional NSW – on major regional corridors, in partnership with charging suppliers and councils.
- Co-invest in charging points in commuter car parks - and investigate commercial models for operation
- Adopt preferred charging standards - to guide councils, companies and investment (largely a non-event now in my view, J-1772 & Mennekes for AC, CCS2 for DCFC)
- Develop guidelines for installation of charging points in roadside service centres
- Invest in the development of a digital platform - to provide convenient and accessible vehicle and charging information (arguably done well enough already with Plugshare etc... I suppose they want an 'official' and less 'crowd-sourced/third party' effort)
- Develop and standardise roadside way finding signage – to help guide motorists to charging locations (of decreasing importance as drivers instead use their in-car nav systems, although Tesla only recently started including third-party charges in its routing, so there's still a bit of walled gardens going on).
- Assess the feasibility of transitioning one or more bus depots to partial or full electric operations, and converting the entire Sydney bus fleet to electric (I've been on some of the trial electric buses in the Inner West - they are brilliant, so much nicer to travel on than those noisy, vibrating, hot and smelly diesels).
- Facilitating car-share or ride-share trials using EVs (hmmm, okay, not sure government really has a role to play here)
- Adopt measures to make buildings ‘EV ready’ - ensuring that new buildings cater for EV charging (this is really important and should be a commitment, not a nice to have)
- The use of National Construction Code and Wiring Rules – to provide guidance on options to retrofit charging points in existing buildings (ditto)
- Further streamline approval processes for installing charging points - to make the installation of charging points quicker and cheaper (ditto)
There's certainly nothing on subsiding EVs, but I think that the structural and policy barriers to EV adoption are more important to solve in the short term, cost a lot less money, and less of a lightning rod for the critics. The cost of EVs will sort itself out soon enough, particularly if government fleets are required to start buying them.
It's a start, so kudos for that.