More fuel efficient vehicles heading Australia's way

The federal government is finally set to introduce rules requiring car companies to supply more fuel efficient new vehicles to Australia.

Transcript

00:00 These shiny new electric cars are getting ready to hit the streets and the Government

00:06 wants more Australians to get behind the wheel.

00:09 85% of cars sold around the world are sold under fuel efficiency standards and it's way

00:15 beyond time that Australia catches up.

00:18 New rules would require car companies to supply more fuel efficient vehicles with targets

00:23 set on the average emissions per kilometre for new cars sold, with fines for non-compliance.

00:30 The Government says it would lead to savings of up to $1000 every year in fuel costs.

00:36 Australians are paying more at the Bowser than they should compare to people in other

00:41 countries because they're using more petrol and diesel.

00:44 Car companies have been very clear to us that the latest and best vehicles that they create

00:49 are often not brought to Australia at all or are brought here years later specifically

00:53 because we haven't had these standards in place.

00:56 The US has had emissions standards since the 1970s but change in Australia has been a long

01:02 time coming.

01:03 We are going to stand by our tradies and we are going to save their utes.

01:08 The opposition says fuel efficiency standards could make some vehicles unaffordable.

01:13 We are going to hear all sorts of nonsense from the opposition, from a range of other

01:18 stakeholders about this.

01:20 We're going to hear that utes are banned, that is not true.

01:24 The peak body for car manufacturers says current technology is limited.

01:28 My greatest concern without doing the analysis is around utes, especially 4x4 utes and large

01:34 SUVs.

01:35 The Climate Council says Australia has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the

01:39 world.

01:40 It would be great to have had it done 20 years ago but here we are and it's good to have

01:45 it done now.

01:46 But even with legislation going through Parliament this year, the changes would not come into

01:51 effect until 2025.

01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]