Make electric cars available in Australia

The Australian Government has deliberately sabotaged attempts to make electric vehicles available to consumers in Australia to protect the oil industry.

While Australians suffer record high petrol prices and the effects of the effects of global warming in our worst droughts ever, our government is delaying the arrival of safe, clean, zero emission battery powered vehicles which can be charged via a standard power point.

Contrary to popular belief, viable private vehicles have been available since 2002 and are being driven by people in Europe and the United States. BEV's are capable of acceleration performance that exceeds gasoline powered vehicles and produce no noise pollution. Mass produced vehicles are safe and affordable. Yet government red tape has prevented their availability to Australians.

The Reva, a family car powered by electricity made in India has sold over 1,800 vehicles around the world since 2001. The Solar Shop in Adelaide has distribution rights and a the vehicle has a competitive retail price of $15,000 AUD, but the government will not let them sell it.

The Xebra, another battery vehicle has sold 200 vehicles in the US since 2006 but is not yet available in Australia but retails for around $13,500 AUD.

Both these vehicles are cheaper to buy than most models of commercial petrol powered vehicles and far cheaper to run than even LPG or ethanol powered cars.

These initiatives are supported in the UK with congestion tax exemptions and also in California.
Meanwhile, Australians are being made to drive vehicles which cost between four to six times as much per kilometre to operate or expensive hybrid cars which are not the ideal solution.

Our nation is the biggest greenhouse polluter in the world per capita, our government is not committed to ratifying Kyoto and transport accounts for over 15% of our total greenhouse emmisions.

Our government is making saving compulsory by superannuation, but not allowing us to save on our basic transport costs.

The Australian government argues that there is no demand for these vehicles, however until the government lets these be sold, how can they know whether there is not demand ? Instead, they continue to encourage LPG conversions and ethanol use as solutions for petrol prices and no solution for greenhouse gas reduction at the same time denying Australians a cheaper alternative.