Caleb Bond: Rescinded Labor election bribe exposes what Australians really think about electric vehicles

Sky News AU

11-05-2025

Bribery is an effective political tool.
See the recent re-election of the Albanese government.
But the rescission of a bribe also reveals people's true thoughts – and so it has been with electric vehicles.
Over a decade of writing columns there are two topics in particular that have made me feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall – the taxation and regulation of tobacco and electric vehicle zealotry.
Once again I've been proven right that people will only buy EVs if they're induced to do so.
The fringe benefits tax exemption for plug-in hybrid cars finished at the end of March.
For the year to date to March, plug-in hybrids made up 4.7 per cent of new car sales.
And what happened after the subsidy was pulled?
Sales made up 2.9 per cent of the market last month.
Exactly the same thing has happened in Germany.
The European EV market shrank by three per cent last year, mostly because German sales dropped by nearly 30 per cent after subsidies ended.
German buyers could previously claim as much as €4,500 (AUD$7900) for buying an EV and manufacturers were entitled to a €2,250 (AUD$3,950) subsidy.
No subsidy, no market.
People are simply not interested in buying electric cars.
It is a mendicant industry propped up by government subsidies.
Battery electric vehicles fared slightly better at 5.9 per cent of the Australian market last month.
But compare that to Labor's modelling before the 2022 election which said EVs would make up 89 per cent of new car sales by the end of the decade.
The federal transport department later revised that down to 27 per cent but even that seems optimistic now.
Just look at Tesla.
No doubt the EV manufacturer has taken a hit due to Elon Musk's interventions in US politics but it doesn't entirely explain why, according to figures from the Electric Vehicle Council, sales have plummeted by more than 75 per cent in a year.
Just 500 Tesla vehicles were sold in Australia last month – barely a quarter of what was sold in April last year.
We've reached saturation point.
Anyone who wants an electric vehicle already has one and people will only now buy them if they're cheap or induced to do so.
Tesla was, more or less, the first mass producer of EVs and all the early adopters bought one.
They already have their Teslas (which have no resale value) so to whom is Tesla meant to be selling new cars?
If you're the sort of person who's considering an EV now, you'll be looking at a much cheaper Chinese model.
And China is about the only place where EV sales have grown – by 40 per cent last year.
That's because most EVs are now made in China and manufacturers are heavily subsidised by the government.
People have no problem buying EVs – so long as they're cheap enough to outweigh every other metric.
The types of cars Australians want are powered by diesel.
The top selling cars last month were the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger, Toyota RAV4, Ford Everest and Toyota Prado.
Anyone who still thinks EVs will be the answer to a clean environment has consumed too many of the heavy metals they put in the batteries.
Caleb Bond is the Host of The Sunday Showdown, Sundays at 7.00pm and co-host of The Late Debate Monday – Thursday at 10.00pm as well as a SkyNews.com.au Contributor. Bond also writes a weekly opinion column for The Advertiser.