was a quite a lot of interest from fleet sectors
and government fleet managers as well. There
seems to be a slowly growing push for vehicle
fleets in government fleets to be switched over to
electric because it’s a cost saving measure. As
I mentioned the cost of maintaining the vehicle
fleet is quite significantly lower.
DB: And you also create an affordable
second-hand market as well for
consumers?
CJ: I mean I don’t know many people in my circles
who buy a new car. Obviously, people who buy
EVs must buy new cars because there aren’t that
many on the second market. But is there a good
way for government to encourage uptake without
distorting the market value of the vehicles? I think
Queensland’s State Government is doing it and
South Australia’s State Government is looking at
doing it as well so it’s interesting.
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DB: Thinking about government people
often talk about the chicken and
egg theory. In your opinion is it up to
government to do more or individuals to
make the changes first?
CJ: You’re right it is. It is kind of chicken and egg
because the funny thing about the old chicken
and egg story is that nowadays we’ve got lots of
both. It started at some point where there was no
motivation to try to bring in EVs to market because
the market was quite small and not well informed.
I guess the role for government is to create an
environment that really encourages manufacturers
to bring EVs to market in Australia and sell them.
But it also needs to encourage customers to take
an interest in them and certainly that’s something
governments can do, and I think a vehicle
emissions standard would probably be the easiest
way to do it.