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Australia does not currently have any issue of carbon emissions, not arbitrary electric car industry and I think that any
such policies in place, however, expecta- targets or individual technologies,” Cana- industry that relies too heavily on govern-
tions are for the rate of EV adoption in van said. ment support is almost inherently volatile
Australia to mirror the uptake in markets “I think to build a sustainable industry it and unsustainable,” he said.
of similar size. has to be consumer-led not government- Electric Vehicle Council chief executive
In the meantime, Canavan believes led, I am confident in the future growth Behyad Jafari told Paydirt Australia was
there will inevitably be an uptick in EVs of electric vehicles because they provide definitely behind in the global EV revolu-
on Australian roads but not the volume an alternative, not just for environmental tion and hoped to drive change in that
expected in places like China and India characteristics, for those in congested regard through “research and industry en-
where air pollution is a major problem. larger developing countries will be criti- gagement to develop a strong understand-
He said criticism that Australia was cal in their uptake. ing of the barriers preventing mass market
lagging the rest of the world in EV adop- “Really, Australia’s role, a nation of 25 uptake of EVs in Australia”.
tion was unfair and the e-mobility revolu- million people, we’re not going to drive The Electric Vehicle Council is the na-
tion down under would be determined by the development of an entire industry. tional body representing the industry in
consumers. That is going to be driven by consumer Australia and includes member compa-
“We are focused on reducing carbon demand in larger countries to get the nies involved in providing, powering and
emissions. Keeping in mind if all we scale required to build electric car fac- supporting EVs. Its members include the
were doing to replace our diesel or petrol tories. Obviously, there is an important world’s biggest car manufacturers; Tesla,
fuelled fleet to EVs, then they will effec- role to play in the provision of the fun- Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mitsubishi, Hyundai
tively be coal-fired EVs at the moment, damental minerals that build those cars, and VW, with the group determined to ac-
so the focus has to be on the broader but what I want to see is a sustainable celerate the electrification of road trans-

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