Federal energy minister Chris Bowen says Australia is not about to start banning Chinese electric vehicle imports, despite calls from the federal Coalition that the country should consider US warnings.
The Biden administration earlier this week flagged that it was considering banning Chinese made EV software for fears that the country would use it to spy on the country by tapping into real time data.
However, most analysts suspect the move is more about protecting the country’s slow moving legacy car-makers GM and Ford, who have fumbled the transition to EVs from further competition. The US has already imposed huge tariffs on Chinese made EVs to protect that industry.
The Coalition has seized on the US concerns. Senator James Patterson, the shadow home minister who has previously raised concerns about Chinese made inverters for solar panels, and Chinese ownership of electricity grids, says an EV ban should be considered.
“Given the serious national and cyber security concerns held by our closest ally about connected vehicles, the Albanese government must urgently explain their own inaction,” he said this week.
“If they agree with the Biden Administration about the risk, they should front up and say why they’ve done nothing about it. This is a problem which only gets harder to fix the longer they delay as more and more of these cars are imported.”
Chinese made EVs now dominate the electric car sector in Australia, either through Chinese owned companies such as BYD, MG and Geely, or through Tesla and Polestar EVs which are also made in China. More China brands including Zeekr, Xpeng, Chery and LeapMotor and the Chinese made Smart are also entering the market.
But Bowen said there would be no ban.
“We won’t be banning vehicles made in any particular country,” he told journalists on Thursday.
“We’ll continue to work with all the relevant agencies to ensure that all are necessary arrangements in place. But I want Australians have more choice of vehicles to buy, not less, more choice.
“We’re seeing a big improvement in range available to Australians. Range of choices, cars available to Australians. You’re going to see much more of that in the next few years as we introduce new vehicle efficiency standards.
“You’re going to see more in the next few weeks with some announcements coming from manufacturers. I’ll leave them to make about new vehicles that are going to be available in Australia.
“That involves choices for Australians so I want Australians to have maximum range of choice as to what vehicles they buy. We won’t be reducing that choice.”
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Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.
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