Minns Labor Government has ditched the former Coalition Government’s popular Electric Vehicle rebate that was helping make the transition to electric vehicles more affordable.
“This announcement is poor environmental policy and another example of NSW Labor just not getting it when it comes to cost of living pressures”, said Shadow Minister for Energy James Griffin.
Mr Griffin joined the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia in slamming the decision by the Minns Government to remove the EV rebate.
“Just like the Minns Labor Government’s decision to axe the stamp duty exemption hurt home ownership, this decision will make purchasing an EV difficult for people across NSW,” said Mr Griffin. “In fact, NSW Labor didn’t flag this cut during the election – they were saying one thing on the clean energy future before the election and got rid of this program after.”
The Electric Vehicle rebate helped families across New South Wales afford EVs and in turn saved them money on fuel costs and helped improve our air quality.
“This program was helping households to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, with new quarterly data released by the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries showing that our state led the EV uptake in three out of four quarters of last year – a total of 10,798 EVs were sold in the state in 2022, leading the country in terms of absolute sales.”
“The Chris Minns’ decision to remove the rebate could seriously impact our position as the number one state and send NSW numbers into reverse gear while the rest of the world is heading in the other direction.”
“This policy is shortsighted and does nothing to help ease the cost of living pressures being felt around by households across NSW,” said Mr Griffin.
“I share concerns of the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia when it comes to this announcement. The CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council has called this a ‘betrayal’ and he is spot on. Premier Minns and Treasurer Mookhey have done a big U-turn when it comes to an EV future for NSW.”