Governments at all levels have become used to treating motorists as cash cows
TAX TIME FOR EVs?
WITH ALL THE talk about states taxing electric cars, perhaps it’s time Wheels did a research piece investigating whether the moves by Victoria and South Australia are merely cash grabs, or if there is a hint of logic behind what appears to be a flawed thought process? As part of the investigation, there would need to be a couple of vehicle comparisons, in particular looking at GST/LCT raised at the point of sale along with GST and taxes raised when filling up the tank or battery. Vehicles to be considered could be: Camry Ascent/Ascent Hybrid, Mercedes GLC/EQC, BMW 330i/330e and MG ZST Essence/EV Essence. This gives a good range of affordable and premium vehicles. For example, at the time of purchase, there’s an extra $1000 in GST revenue for the MG EV. GST and fuel levies would work out at around $530 per year in GST/fuel excise while the EV will generate $27 in GST. From the owner’s perspective, the $500 saving is a drop in the ocean compared with the extra $10K they had to pay up front, but I would suggest the consumer who buys the EV is unlikely to purchase the ICE version. The Camry, from a tax perspective, is worse with only $260 more GST up front on the Hybrid and $300 less in fuel-tax revenue per annum. Let’s put this another way – if (heaven forbid) every car sold in Australia for 2021 was a Toyota Camry hybrid, tax/fuel excise revenue in 2022 would leave a $270m black hole in the budget. If the same thing happened in 2022, we now have a $540m budget blow-out in 2023. Governments at all levels have become used to treating motorists as cash cows. With the shift to EVs, one of two things will have to happen – taxes will increase elsewhere or government spending will have to be tightened. I would suggest the former is the easier way out.
We haven’t checked your numbers, Patrick, but it sounds as though you’ve already done some of the heavy lifting for us. We’ll add your suggestion to our list of possible features.
EV END GAME JUST TO PUT EV battery cars in perspective, it is well documented that the automotive industry acknowledges that battery energy for powering vehicles is only a stopgap platform that has a current future of no more than 10-15 years. It will be replaced by hydrogen energy through the use of a fuel cell module to drive an electric motor. The advancement of hydrogen energy is fast taking place in countries like Japan and America. Even Tesla sees this as the end game and has entered into a technology partnership with Toyota where Tesla shares its battery technology in return for Toyota sharing its hydrogen fuel-cell technology. All major automotive makers either have prototype fuel cell cars running around or new release models coming out this year. In Australia we have a Japanese consortium that has produced the first hydrogen pilot plant in the Latrobe Valley and plans to transport the hydrogen to Japan from the Port of Hastings in a specially designed ship later this year. The long-term future for vehicles is the hydrogen fuel cell, it will just take longer to arrive in Australia due to our slow-acting Federal Government. History shows that late adopters of any new technology always end up paying more. Robert Ius, Haberfield, NSW
Interesting thoughts, Robert. In many ways hydrogen does make an enormous amount more sense than a conventionally-charged electric vehicle. We intend to investigate this topic in-depth in a future issue.
ROTOR REVOLUTION
“THE LONG-TERM FUTURE FOR THE AUTOMOBILE IS THE HYDROGEN FUEL CELL
TIMES ARE CHANGING, fast. It makes me think about the true future of the car. I don’t think it will be too long before your magazine is irrelevant unless you start to embrace the changes in the world, hence the title of this email: Wheels & Rotors, which could be the new name of your magazine. I am, of course, referring to the inevitable decline of cars and the transition to Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL ) electric aircraft. Anything with driven wheels will be a relic of a bygone era. NASA is currently testing and establishing safety standards to help developers build and supply commercial VTOL aircraft. Perhaps you could run a story on that? I myself am working on a design to solve one of the key issues with VTOLs in suburbia, but I won’t extrapolate on it. Imagine a world where all the real estate currently occupied by roads will be reclaimed for other uses, and the roofs of houses and buildings are redesigned as VTOL ‘airports’. It’s time to start thinking about the future.
Neo Griffin, via email
Interesting assertions, Neo, and we have no doubt that VTOL will eventually emerge as a key part of the world’s transportation mix. But all our research on this subject suggests it will be decades before it moves into the mainstream. As for VTOL making the car and commercial road transport redundant, and see bitumen being turned into parklands, we can’t find any credible futurists who believe this will be a reality in our lifetimes. The land-going passenger vehicle will be with us for a while yet, we reckon.
SCARLET OPERA
READING ROBBO’S COLUMN about the Ferrari 250 LM, (Wheels, April ’21) takes me back to a Sunday in 1965 when I was at Warwick Farm to experience that fantastic machine driven by Spencer Martin. The speed was awesome, but it was really the sound of the car’s engine that blew me away. I was standing at the bridge towards the end of the straight coming into Creek Corner where he started downshifting through the gears; I think he was something like half a lap ahead of the competition. You know, the memory still gets me excited even to this day. Paul Baker, St Ives, NSW
You don’t get that at a Formula E meeting, Paul...