The federal government is facing calls to respond to an effective ban on Chinese carmakers in the US with moves of its own.
Auto industry experts say any moves would be complicated, and risk slowing the pace of Australia’s transition to electric vehicles.
The Albanese government says it is “closely monitoring” the moves in the US, and is in talks with the Biden administration about any local implications.
The ban on Chinese companies for 5G infrastructure at least made some sense.^
Electric cars, though, seems to be just transparently economic warfare against China. Why not petrol cars? Why not every other Chinese consumer electronic device?
And it’s economic warfare that will ultimately be to the detriment of the climate, you’d have to think.
^ An aside...
but I’ll note that the ban was a tacit admission that they were not going to verify the hardware or software for the 5G towers, wherever it came from. I don’t know, maybe that’s not possible, but in any case it’s kind of troubling that even the government is just trusting the manufacturer hasn’t put any malicious backdoors in critical communications infrastructure.
What the government can do is legislate “Guaranteed BuyBack” of EVs at EOL and enforce fully recyclable vehicles. The Chinese manufacturers are providing discounted vehicles because when the battery is dead, it is not their problem. A lot of these cheaper EVs with 5 or 7 year warranties aren’t making it out of the warranty period without a new battery. When they are out-of-warranty, good luck keeping it out of landfill.