Is Australia getting left in the EV slow lane? Japan moves to ban petrol and diesel cars and embrace electric vehicles

Japan is the latest country to consider a ban on petrol- and diesel-powered new vehicles, putting Australia in the slow lane of the electric-vehicle transition.

Reports from Japan indicate the government is strongly considering a ban on sales of internal-combustion engine vehicles by the mid-2030s as part of prime minister Yoshihide Suga’s commitment to hit a net carbon neutral goal by 2050.

The news follows the Boris Johnson-led British government plan to ban petrol and diesel sales by 2030; an acceleration of a previously announced 2035 ban.

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All of this means two of the world’s biggest right-hand-drive markets are set to dump petrol and diesel power by the end of the middle of the next decade, putting Australia’s motoring future under a cloud.

Currently EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) make up less than one per cent of new-vehicle sales in Australia. Federally, there are no major financial incentives for EV buying either, unlike many similar markets around the world.

Instead, both the South Australian and Victorian state governments are planning on introducing new road-user charges to effectively tax EV drivers to compensate for a reduction in fuel-excise revenue.

Behyad Jafari, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, told CarsGuide recently that Australia is in danger of being left behind as the rest of the world makes the EV switch.

“Over the long march of time, all cars will become electric, but the question is will Australians have to wait 10, 20 or 30 years to catch up to the rest of the world?” he said.

It’s not just right-hand-drive markets that are phasing out petrol power, either. The world’s largest car market, China, is set to ban internal-combustion vehicles by 2035. The USA’s biggest state, California, has also pledged to ban petrol engine cars in the same year.

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Norway leads the world, with plans to only sell EVs by 2025, Sweden will match the UK with a 2030 ban, and France and Singapore have set 2040 as the date to phase out the internal-combustion engine.

The current Coalition government has made no public commitment to incentivise EVs or ban petrol and diesel sales, but a government-commissioned report has suggested Australian EV sales could reach 50 per cent by 2030 – under the right market conditions.