Australian fuel efficiency standards could have saved motorists $5.9bn, research shows

Motorists could have saved $5.9bn in fuel costs over the last six years if Australia had adopted fuel efficiency standards in 2015, according to a new report.

In 2014, the Climate Change Authority recommended Australia adopt standards to reduce emissions intensity of cars. It failed to do so, and became an outlier, with countries representing 80% of the global market opting to impose such standards.

In 2018, the average emissions intensity for new passenger vehicles in Australia was 169.8 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, compared to 129.9 in the United States, 120.4 in Europe and 114.6 in Japan.

Before the 2022 election Labor promised to remove import tariffs and the fringe benefits tax from electric cars below the luxury car tax threshold, to drive consumer take-up of electric vehicles.

The Australia Institute is holding an electric vehicle summit on 19 August, at which tech billionaire Mike Cannon Brookes is expected to push the Albanese government for further changes to transport policy to cut emissions.

In June the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, fuelled speculation the policy could make a comeback by not ruling out stricter vehicle performance standards in response to a question at the National Press Club.