Australiaâs biggest car brands have been ranked on their efforts to reduce emissions and the news is not positive for many of the countryâs top sellers.
While electric vehicle manufacturers Polestar and Tesla topped the Climate Councilâs Race to Zero Ranking on Tuesday, Australiaâs top three car brands, Toyota, Ford and Kia, all ranked lower than their sales indicated.
Toyota, which was Australiaâs best-selling vehicle brand in October, ranked 11th in the list, only higher than Isuzu.
Climate Council advocacy head Dr Jennifer Rayner said the analysis was designed to give Australians a better understanding of the commitments car manufacturers had made to switch to zero-emission vehicles.
âWhen we had a look at our best-selling brands, itâs clear that many are making their own fleets electric by 2030 and even more are going to hit this milestone by 2040,â she said.
âWhat weâre looking at is the commitments that theyâve made so far around the world. In some instances, manufacturers have not made the same commitments for Australia but weâd really like to see them do that.â
Polestar and Tesla ranked first and second respectively on the Climate Councilâs list, while Volvo slotted into third place as the greenest car maker still producing petrol and diesel vehicles.
Volvo Australia recently announced plans to stop selling petrol vehicles in Australia from 2026 â four years ahead of its worldwide target.
Ford and Volkswagen followed Volvo in the rankings, chased by Mazda, Hyundai, Kia and Honda. Nissan and Mitsubishi ranked tenth, while Toyota and Isuzu filled the final spots in the ranking.
Dr Rayner said Volvoâs actions highlighted that âtimeframes like 2030 and 2035 are much more possible than people might thinkâ for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, and encouraged the industry to adopt bolder goals.
âItâs really up to those companies whether they want to remain revving their engines on the starterâs block and let the competition accelerate ahead of them. Our national policy settings on clean transport shouldnât be set by those who are at the back of the pack,â she said.
Transport currently makes up 18 per cent of Australiaâs greenhouse gas emissions, according to the National Transport Commission, and the country has committed to reducing emissions by 43 per cent in 2050, based on 2005 levels.
Climate Council energy expert and former BP Australasia president Greg Bourne said the car brand rankings werenât surprising but he was sad to see some manufacturers had not addressed the challenge.
âI have been incredibly disappointed how Toyota have stuck with the hybrid and they have not yet committed to going EV,â he said.
âThey make incredibly good cars but they havenât committed to going EV yet which is a surprise.â
Reports in October indicated the car maker was reconsidering its electric vehicle strategy but it has yet to launch an EV in Australia.
Mr Bourne said Chinese and European car makers were increasingly launching new electric vehicles in a bid to âdominate the future industryâ and âbuild a competitive advantageâ before older brands caught up.
And he said Australian consumers may be enticed to adopt electric vehicles sooner than expected due to rising fuel prices and the promise of new incentives and policy changes.
âThe key thing is if I fill up my Tesla between midnight and dawn it costs me about $7 and I can do 500km,â Mr Bourne said.
âIf I was to fill a similar car thatâs a petrol car it would cost me over $100.â
The federal government is currently considering responses to its National Electric Vehicle Strategy consultation paper, which closed on October 31.
More than 100 businesses and groups used the paper to request the introduction of a fuel efficiency standard, which would set a limit on emissions allowed across car makersâ fleets in Australia.
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Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
(Australian Associated Press)