The Australian Electric Vehicle Council has underlined the country’s need to introduce fuel efficiency standards similar to those in New Zealand.

The council cites a study of New Zealand consumers that found that 62% of the country was happy with the local Clean Car Discount and Clean Car Standard policies. The council says that it’s “time for Australia to catch up” to its New Zealand neighbours.

“Australia is one of the last developed nations on earth not to introduce fuel efficiency standards and this polling shows the government has nothing to fear from quickly catching up,” said EV Council CEO Behyad Jafari.

“The Australian Government should have introduced fuel efficiency standards many years ago. If this had happened we would have tens of thousands more EVs on the road, and Australian drivers would not be waiting months, or years, to take delivery of their new electric vehicles,” added Jafari.

“There is no reason to delay further. We need the federal government to announce strong fuel efficiency standards this year to help accelerate Australia’s transition to an electric fleet.”

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The study referenced by the council quizzed 989 New Zealanders, exclaiming that 62% of respondents said they approved of the Clean Car Standard. The study also noted that 46% of respondents were unaware of the standard prior to the study, and 35% believed that the Clean Car Discount’s ‘feebate’ system was “good policy”.

Stuff has sent a request to the Australian Electric Vehicle Council for further information on the study.

The council includes support from numerous high-ranking names from the motoring industry. Tesla senior manager Sam McLean, Volkswagen Group managing director Paul Sansom, and Volvo Group vice president Paul Illmer all feature on its board of directors.

Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has announced numerous programmes designed to support the adoption of electric vehicles since the Labor leader took office in mid-2022.

These programmes include introducing a federal tax cut on EVs, and the creation of the AU$500m Driving the Nation Fund and a AU$40m investment in charging infrastructure. But to date, Albanese has yet to propose any kind of efficiency standard plan.

Should Australia adopt similar standards to New Zealand, the benefits could be felt on both sides of the ditch.

A portion of New Zealand’s electric vehicle supply struggles can be attributed to Australia’s lack of EV uptake – particularly when it comes to brands that export their cars to New Zealand via Australia, fielding identical models on both sides of the ditch.

New Zealand’s adoption of Clean Car schemes has helped lure new brands and new models into the country, some of which aren’t offered in Australia. Opel is an example of an EV-centric brand that exists in New Zealand, but not Australia.

The Clean Car Standard has been criticised by several local brands and groups for being too aggressive in its scaling. Toyota New Zealand chief executive Neeraj Lala recently theorised that the standard is going to have an impact on vehicle prices – even on those vehicles that are less impacted by the standard’s penalties.

“Ultimately it’s going to impact the affordability of product. It has to. We’ve got a cost of living crisis at the moment, this is going to exacerbate it. […] It’s a massive paradigm shift,” said Lala.