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Mark Hinchliffe·
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··7 Comments·1 min read

Greens want us all on electric motorcycles

Australian Greens Cake electric motorcycle

If the Australian Greens had their way, we would all be riding electric motorcycles like the one above by 2030 and would foot the bill via government incentives.

Their plan includes:

Australian Greens transport spokesperson Senator Janet Rice announced the plan after the final report of her Select Committee on Electric Vehicles was released.

Greens rewards

“The Greens are the only party with a real plan to get Australia in the fast lane so that we can reap the rewards that will come from electric vehicles,” she says.

She doesn’t say what the rewards are, but with the current electric supply problems, labouring our system wth more electrical products could put us all in the dark.

The Greens also don’t mention anything about the environmental concerns of electricity from our coal-fired power plants and the disposal of batteries.

Their reference to “strong vehicle emissions standards” probably means faster acceptance of Euro standards.

In which case, bikes such as the Kawasaki KLR650 and Suzuki Hayabusa would no longer be available for sale in Australia.

That’s hardly a reward!

Lagging behind the world

The Greens Senator says Australia is lagging behind other nations on electric vehicle (EV) incentives and infrastructure.

We are also lagging behind countries that ban some motorcycles from their CBD.

The Greens would have us follow countries such as Sweden which is among the world leaders in EV adoption with more than 50,000 plug-in vehicles registered and a plan to have a 100% fossil-fuel-free vehicle fleet by 2030.

That’s not a reference to just new vehicles coming into or made in the country. That’s ALL vehicles.

That would mean a total ban on riding all motorcycles, except electric bikes like this!

Meanwhile, the Greens want the government to incentivise motorcyclists and drivers to buy EVs.

“The government has a choice to get Australia in the fast lane, but that means hitting the accelerator with ambitious targets and incentives to drive the uptake of electric vehicles,” Senator Rice says.

In the end, the motorist pays for those incentives through taxes, so where’s the incentive?

 

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7 Comments

  1. Clearly, the “reward” is a planet on which humans and, more importantly, other species (which don’t destroy the planet like humans do) can survive. You can scoff and poke fun all you like, but if things don’t change very, very quickly, even the cockroaches will be lucky to survive. Mankind has pretty much buggered the oceans and other water bodies already. Many countries are providing tax incentives for people to buy EV’s and hybrids, but Australia, with the highest per capita polluters on the planet, is happy to sit back and say “she’ll be right mate.” Seriously, when is this country going to stop being so damn retarded? You are quite right to be concerned about charging EV’s with coal-fired electricity, but how electricity is generated also needs to change rapidly. That’s not going to happen if the dinosaurs, including the gullible fools who believe the planet is six thousand years old, running the country at present are allowed to continue ignoring the problems.

  2. It is very clear that some people don’t actually live in the same country we do even when they are right next door . At the current rate of battery development it will be twenty years before electric vehicles especially bikes are a true replacement for ice vehicles in countries like Australia, Sweden is not an example to follow in this regard.
    I wonder if we could gather up all the politicians and University researchers and SJWs who seem to live on another planet and put them in a re-education camp to teach them reality?

  3. If they want me to buy one they will have to pay for it for me, and the millions of others who cannot afford a new car or bike.

  4. I will only consider an electric vehicle when manufacturers can produce a motorcycle with a range of 350km & the ability to recharge fully in 5 minutes (the time it currently takes to refuel a petrol bike) or when they can produce a car with a range of 800km & recharge in less than 10 minutes. Otherwise electric vehicles are useless in Australia.
    Another thought, how are we going to recharge electric vehicles when we run out of electric power due to “green energy policy” of closing down coal burning power stations?

  5. What the Greens and many other environmentalists seem to overlook is cars and other land transport create only a small percentage of the carbon in Australia (8% is the figure that springs to mind). By far the biggest polluter is power generation. So until we fix the nature of electricity generation, forcing cars and bikes to run on electric power is a loser that adds to the problem. Battery life, recharging times and production pollution are also in the mix but the simple fact is, as far as Australia is concerned, electric power is not really viable let alone a fix for the problem.

  6. High per capita yes , but total contribution about 1.5%.
    So if we had 100% clean electricity to power everthing including transport , agriculture, ( electric cows ) and so we would make very Little difference.

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