The countdown clock to Carmageddon is ticking away fast after Australia’s electric vehicle lobby demanded the ban on petrol and diesel vehicles within a decade.
The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) made the bold demand for governments across the country to come into line and ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.
If the proposal is accepted it could spell the end of Aussie favourites like the Ford Falcon and other petrol-powered V8 beasts.
The EVC, Australia’s peak body for electric vehicles, has also called for registrations of petrol and diesel cars to be banned from 2035.
This means anyone with a VL Calais, Nissan Skyline, XY Falcon GT should ensure their street machines are registered before it’s too late.
The council has stopped short of calling for petrol and diesel utes and trucks to be banned, but has not ruled out making those demands in the future.
However, the move could spell the end of long road trips and off-road journeys.
While current EVs have the power to tow trailers and caravans, they do not have the capacity to do it across long distances.
Victorian car automotive historian Chris ‘El Toro’ Taranto said the council should abandon it’s proposal (pictured with his AC Cobra)
Classic GT Falcons that the one above could soon be banned from Australian roads
Tradies could also suffer, dealing another blow to blue-collar small businesses.
It could also mean trouble for landscapers and concreters, as it remains unclear whether EV trucks and utes could carry the heavy loads their powerhouse diesel utes and trucks currently haul daily.
Victorian car historian Chris ‘El Toro’ Taranto has demanded the council abandon the controversial proposal.
‘I have about $2million worth of classic cars so it will ruin my day,’ he told Daily Mail.
‘It will be a shame if we can’t get our cars on the road because of this, I want them to abandon the plan.’
Mr Taranto, who owns 10 cars including an AC Cobra, a GT40, a 63 Thunderbird and a 64 Mercury Cyclone among his ‘1960s Ford race focused cars’, said most of his vehicles are registered under a restricted club permit which is a cheaper alternative for car buffs.
However, the collector fears the government could just abandon the permit program.
‘They’ll pull the rug out from under us and say our cars aren’t registered,’ he said.
Melbourne car enthusiast Stephano Calabro (above with Navara) said the proposal makes him ‘feel very uncomfortable and very angry’
‘I’m sure we’ll get the letter saying the permit is no good and we’ll need to get full regos but it’ll be hard to get it across the line. Regos are already around $1,000 a year and it’ll be hard to get cars road-worthied again.’
Mr Taranto also lashed the EV industry, calling it a ‘big w***’.
‘I don’t think we have the battery tech yet and how green are these cars actually going to be? We sell our resources cheap to China who mass manufacture cars and parts while burning coal, the environmental benefits will be wiped out,’ he said.
‘I just think electric vehicles, anyone who owns one is virtue signalling, it’s just a big w***.’
Melbourne car enthusiast Stephano Calabro said the council’s proposal makes him ‘feel very uncomfortable and very angry’.
‘I love my four-wheel driving, I love my petrol cars, I love my diesel cars, and electric cars, mate you spend more time at the charging stations than actual driving instead you go to a service station, you fill up and five minutes later you’re gone,’ he said.
‘Electric cars can’t go long distances – they’re great for the city – but they’re still not great for the economy, whereas petrol and diesel cars you can pretty much do anything with them really.’
Mr Calabro, who owns an EA Falcon he is currently ‘building up’ and a 2.5L diesel 4WD Nissan Navara, also questioned how and where EV parts will be made.
Holden VL Calais like the one pictured could soon be demoted to the car graveyard
‘It’s just going to be too ridiculous with all these electric cars that are coming out, where are we going to get the parts from? Where are they going to make the parts?How expensive are they going to be?’ he asked.
‘In the next five years you’re going to spend f***ing like five, ten grand on a new battery every five years, you want to replace a battery on a petrol/diesel car, mate it will cost you 300 bucks.’
Mr Calabro fears for the day he can’t register his vehicles and get them on the road.
‘It will be a tragedy if all these classic cars, cars that people have spent many hours working on with pride, will not be allowed on the street,’ he said.
‘That makes me very, very, very angry and the government doesn’t know what they’re doing if they allow that.
‘Those classic cars are Australian icons, your Holdens, your Fords, your classic Beamers, they’re classic cars and electric cars, they can go to the tip.’
There are also growing concerns that EVs could pose serious risks to pedestrians, thanks to their near-silent engines.
Melbourne mother Ange Crez said she and her kids had a close scrape with an EV at a pedestrian crossing near their primary school.
‘It’s really dangerous for kids around the schools, you can’t hear them, they can sneak up from behind and you won’t know,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘Recently one came out of nowhere while me and the kids were using the pedestrian crossing, it’s quite dangerous, there’s lots of kids crossing so they [EVs] really need some sort of radio sound to alert you they are there.’
Electric Vehicle Council CEO Julie Delvecchio (pictured) says Australia will need at least one million EVs on the road before 2028 to meet its Net Zero targets
Electric Vehicle Council CEO Julie Delvecchio claimed more Aussies are ‘steering towards electric vehicles’ than ever before.
‘They are better for your budget, better for the climate, and better for Australia whether or not you drive an EV,’ she said.
‘EVs are winning over more Australians every day because they’re cheaper to run, fun to drive, better for the planet, and cater to every lifestyle from hatchbacks and sedans to utes and SUVs.’
The council said Australia will need at least one million EVs on the road before 2028 to meet its Net Zero by 2035 target.
‘We are making inroads in EV uptake as a nation, but the road ahead is steep,’ Ms Delvecchio said.
‘EVs now make up more than 12 percent of new car sales, which is progress, but we need that to hit 50 per cent within the decade.
