Sydney International EV Show 2024

In the transformation that we have underway in Australia, I want to acknowledge the fact that this is the land of Gadigal people and pay my respects to them and also acknowledge that our energy transformation is an opportunity to work with them to break down Indigenous disadvantage in our country by ensuring they share in the wealth that we're creating in this renewable energy transformation.

The other opportunity we have in our renewable energy transformation is to ensure that households are in charge of the resources that they have available to them: on their roof, in their garage – in their battery in the garage, and increasingly in the battery that sits in their driveway.

The battery that sits in their driveway will in almost all circumstances be much more powerful than the battery that's in their garage.

And we've got to ensure that all those resources are working not just for the grid, for the country, but for the consumers, or increasingly what we call prosumers – people who are producing and consuming at the same time – producing energy and consuming energy.

And we are making good progress that. And EVs are right at the heart of that as well.

A couple of months ago in our regular meeting of state and territory Energy Ministers with me, we agreed what we call the Consumer Energy Roadmap, a pathway to ensure that consumers are in charge of the resources that they have [available to them].

And very important in the roadmap is the role of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.

I'm very pleased to announce today that one of the important milestones in that Consumer Energy Roadmap has been ticked and that Standards Australia has ticked off the new standard that will allow vehicle to grid charging in Australia.

Thank you. Thank you to the people applauding.

Now what that means, for those of you who are applauding and probably already know what it means, but what that means is that no longer will charging be a one-way street.

That you can charge when you want to charge and you can discharge back to your house or to the grid when that suits you.

Obviously, you'll be looking at energy prices. You might want to set it up so it happens all automatically. It's really putting consumers in charge.

And the process from now is that those manufacturers that enable vehicle to grid charging and those charging companies that enable it can register their products with the Clean Energy Council and get approval for each particular product.

They'll have to meet the standard that's been ticked off by Standards Australia, but where we've got manufacturers and OEMs who are on board for that and it all happens smoothly, we'll be able to have bi-directional charging a reality by Christmas this year.

So, I really am encouraging manufacturers both of vehicles and charging infrastructure to get their act together and get their applications into the Clean Energy Council - I'm sure they will, they've been waiting for this - as quickly as possible so we can make it a reality.

It's not going to happen overnight for everyone.

Not every manufacturer is at the same place, but it's now going to be enabled in our system.

So, it's a really, really important step forward.

A couple of other announcements I'm making today.

There's a lot of very impressive light vehicles around and that's very important.

That's why we introduced our New Vehicle Efficiency Standards through the Parliament.

As you know, most of you, Australia and Russia were the only two countries in the world, only two major economies in the world without vehicle efficiency standards.

So, we have been very much a dumping ground for non-efficient vehicles, for vehicles which use far too much petrol and diesel.

We’ve fixed that. Got it through the Parliament, wasn't easy, but it's done, and it will start on the 1st of January.

That, though, applies to light vehicles only, for cars to utes, and to light commercials.

It's not the right answer for heavy vehicles and we have a lot of work to do to decarbonise heavy vehicle transport in Australia.

It's difficult, but it's got to be done.

And there are good options for heavy vehicle transportation, whether they be battery swaps or hydrogen, there are good options, but a long way to go.

So, today I'm also announcing that we're making $100 million available for heavy vehicle decarbonisation through ARENA, our renewable energy agency, so companies and others can apply for innovative charging for new technologies for rollout of heavy vehicle decarbonisation. And that is also available now as well.

And the third thing I'm announcing today is support for two particular companies, Linfox and Toll.

We are providing Linfox $19.6 million to help them roll out 26 battery electric trucks across their distribution centres in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

And we're providing Toll with $9 million to deploy 28 battery electric trucks and supporting infrastructure at their 10 sites across Australia.

We've already done quite a bit with both of those companies, but we're doing more because them decarbonising their fleets is good for them, reduces their running costs, and importantly, it's very good for their drivers.

I've not yet met a driver of a heavy vehicle who switched to electric who says they want to go back.

Easier to drive, better to drive, quieter to drive, cleaner to drive, and a more pleasurable driving experience.

So, it's very good for workplace harmony and happiness for these companies, but it's also in our national interests, so, therefore we partner with these companies to get the job done.

So, it's a good day.

Vehicle to grid charging is now ticked, enabled under the law of the land and will become a reality before Christmas, in the real world. Possible today, technically possible today, thanks to these changes, but next couple of months, an opportunity for the companies to get their registrations in and get it happening.

Secondly, partnering with companies to decarbonise heavy vehicle transport and also partnering with those people who want to be involved in heavy vehicle decarbonisation with $100 million funding through ARENA.

So, thanks for coming out today. I hope you've had your interest piqued in some of the beautiful models we see around.

I've been checking them out and looking at what's coming in the market, what's available in the market now and what's coming in the market over the next 12 months and there's great, exciting options.

And that's even - that's just going to get better.

With the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards that are in place from the 1st of January, we're seeing more and more affordable options.

People say EVs are too expensive. That's because we haven't required the affordable options to be sent to Australia.

People say EVs aren't and hybrids aren't suitable for use. Well, the BYD model for $60,000 went on sale two weeks ago. They've sold about 2,500 so far. So, people do respond very positively when they see these models coming online.

And we've got a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world. We started very late on this journey, and we've got a long way to go, but we're catching up as rapidly as we can.

That's in no small part to government policy, but in no small part to cooperation with industry and the people who are participating in the EV journey.

Great to see you today.