Further to that tweet on Tony Abbott, SBS has let us listen to the doorstop (it’s off the main campaign trail and was a small group of journalists grabbing him at his campaign launch at the Manly wharf).

The so-called settled science is not quite as settled as people say. And that’s my position. Nevertheless we have only got one planet; we should do what we reasonably can to rest lightly upon it. 

I have always said climate change happens; mankind makes a contribution. We should do what we reasonably can to reduce emissions.

What we shouldn’t do though, is turn our economy upside down in what turns out to be a futile green gesture.

... What I’ve always said is we shouldn’t have an emissions obsession. I thought a year or so back the best way to break the emissions obsession was to pull out of Paris. 

Quite a bit has changed since then, including the prime minister, and I think it is fair to say this is a government that is much more sensible and pragmatic about all this today.”

Just a reminder that absolutely nothing has changed for this government in regards to the Paris target or its emissions reduction targets, under Scott Morrison.

It’s the same policy.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/apr/12/federal-elec...

In response to Labor's plan to accelerate Australia's uptake of electric vehicles by introducing a target of 50 per cent of new car sales being electric by 2030, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that "Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend".

Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, he said: "[An electric vehicle] won't tow your trailer. It's not going to tow your boat. It's not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot with your family."

So, do electric vehicles have insufficient power to tow a trailer or boat, or to travel a reasonable distance for holidaymakers?

RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.

Mr Morrison's claim is in need of a tune up.

Right now, there are a handful of electric vehicles available on the Australian market and only around half specify towing capacity. However, those powerful enough to tow a boat or caravan come with a hefty price tag of $100,000 or more.

Experts told Fact Check that electric vehicles under development by leading manufacturers and due to be released onto the market well before 2030, are likely to have the capacity to tow a trailer or boat with similar efficiency as petrol-based vehicles. 

Electric vehicles produce a high level of torque which determines towing capacity; some models, in fact, have a higher power output than standard petrol vehicles.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-10/federal-election-fact-check-elect...

And by the way, an electric car can accelerate faster than a petrol-diesel-gas driven one... and stink less... Now where did I moor my electric driven vessel...?

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A coalition of free market advocacy groups, led by former Koch Industries lobbyist, urged Congress on Thursday not to extend the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit. In a letter rife with easily discredited and false statements, this coalition sent its plea to the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Most of the 34 groups are funded by the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers’ donor network or have ties to Koch Industries. And most of the references cited in the letter have clear, demonstrable ties to Koch Industries and Koch funding.

The episode echoes a similar sequence from last September, when many of the same groups sent a comparable letter after Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and others introduced the Electric Cars Act of 2018.

The letter is further evidence of this network of Koch-affiliated groups ramping up their opposition to the EV tax credit.

“The American Energy Alliance (AEA) has organized a coalition to proclaim in one unified voice that there should be no expansion of the misguided electric vehicle tax credit,” Tom Pyle, president of the AEA and a former lobbyist for Koch Industries, wrote in a statement, first published by The Daily Caller News Foundation, which has received more than $2.6 million from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation since 2013. (That article, it’s worth mentioning, was published at 5:10 am EDT on Thursday, before the letter could have been delivered. Evidently, the Koch-funded think tanks gave the Koch-funded website an advance copy.)

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/05/09/koch-funded-groups-still-begging-c...

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In recent years, the majority of Coloradans have been struggling to breathe clean air, and tailpipe emissions carry much of the blame. Lawmakers have started to take on this threat with a number of clean car standards and incentives coming out of the Governor's office and the state legislature. However, a newly formed coalition of car dealers, the oil and gas industry, and free market advocates are working to put the brakes on clean air policies in Colorado, and they're using a disinformation playbook often used by organizations in the Koch network.

Launched in March, the Freedom to Drive Coalition has fought against Colorado’s adoption of low emission vehicle standards (which the state’s Air Quality Control Commission approved in a unanimous 9-0 vote) and is now battling a complementary effort to adopt zero emission vehicle (ZEV, or electric car) standards that would greatly reduce tailpipe emissions.

Air quality in the Front Range — where more than 60 percent of Colorado residents live — has been so bad that it has violated national clean air standards for the last seven years. In 2018 alone, “there were 55 days when Coloradans were warned that exercise outdoors could be damaging to their health due to high ozone levels,” according to Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). That’s an average of one day per week where the air in this Rocky Mountain state’s most populated counties is so bad, it’s too dangerous to go out for a jog.

A full 30-40 percent of Colorado’s air pollution on high ozone days can be directly attributed to motor vehicles, according to a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment report. (Another 30-40 percent is attributed to oil and gas operations in the Front Range. State authorities are working separately to reel in those pollutants, and fighting another network of oil and gas industry front groups and trade associations.)

While Colorado policymakers work with public health and environmental groups to reduce vehicle emissions, the Freedom to Drive Coalition has ramped up public relations and lobbying campaigns over the past six months to combat the low- and zero emissions vehicle standards.

Immediately upon launching earlier this year, the Freedom to Drive Coalition put Colorado's potential adoption of the low emission vehicle mandate in its crosshairs.

The group lists member organizations including oil industry groups like the Colorado Petroleum Association and the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM) and auto groups like the Colorado Independent Automobile Dealers Association (CIADA) and the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).

On the ground and online, the coalition appears to be run by a handful of Colorado-based public affairs professionals, including the former director of the Colorado state chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), whose national group was founded and funded by the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers.

Sean Paige fields press queries about Freedom to Drive from his personal public affairs firm called Affinity Advocacy. Paige spent three years as Deputy Director and Acting Director of Americans for Prosperity Colorado, the state chapter of Charles Koch’s national advocacy and political organizing group. Paige also spent nearly four years as Communications Director for the state Senate Republican majority and state Senate President Kevin Grantham, during which time he generated some measure of controversy by posting AFP materials from official Colorado Senate social media accounts.

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/24/freedom-drive-coalition-koch-disin...

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Similar to the VHS versus Beta debate in the 80s, the battle between different types of green motoring could see hydrogen-fuelled cars come out on top over conventional battery-powered electric vehicles in the next five years.

• Hydrogen fuelled cars could be on the road commercially by 2025
• Hydrogen cars are quicker to recharge than conventional electric cars
• Car companies and state governments are investing millions of dollars into the future of hydrogen-powered cars

Hydrogen cars have been proven to refuel quicker and have a longer driving range — which some say makes them the future of green motoring.

"The advantage of hydrogen cars is that it takes the same time to charge them as it takes to fill your car with fossil fuels — no more than about three minutes," Motor Trades Association of Queensland's chief executive Brett Dale said.

"With hydrogen you're more likely to use the same behaviour as you would to go into a fuel station and refuel your car.

"Although we use the language recharge, with hydrogen it's more like refuelling."

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-30/hydrogen-cars-could-be-commercial...

---------------------------

One of the disadvantages of such hydrogen cars is that you CANNOT easily make your own hydrogen. It's much easier to make your own electricity to recharge your vehicle — be it a car or a bicycle.

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Problems with diesel particulate filters in top-selling Toyota cars have exposed Australia's 'lagging' vehicle-emissions standards, public health and environmental advocates say.

• Australia has less-strict emissions standards than Europe
• Hundreds of drivers, including many Toyota owners, are being threatened with fines because their cars are seen to be emitting too much smoke
• Doctors warn diesel emissions are harmful to human health and are calling for tighter standards

State and territory environment protection authorities have sent more than 1,200 warning notices to drivers in the past year about their polluting cars, including hundreds of Toyotas with excessive smoke issues. 

Last month, the ABC revealed Toyota is being sued as part of a class action over faulty diesel particulate filters (DPFs) in the Hilux, Fortuner and Prado vehicles sold in Australia between October 2015 and July 2019.

Scores of drivers have told the ABC their faulty DPFs cause the cars to spew out smelly white smoke and use more fuel.

Suzanne Harter, a clean energy campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, said Australia needed to tighten standards to stop it from becoming a dumping ground for less-efficient, more-polluting cars. 

"Australia is currently lagging behind the rest of the world on vehicle-emissions standards," Ms Harter said. 

"I think it speaks to a larger problem in Australia that we need to improve our standards, improve our testing regimes … and make sure the vehicles that are coming into our country are both fuel efficient and are able to protect public health better." 

Ms Harter said the lack of standards can put motorists who have recently purchased a vehicle with a failing system in a difficult position.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-05/toyota-diesel-emissions-expose-br...

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See also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26526

Porsche North American President and CEO Klaus Zellmer said at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show that they respect Tesla as a sports car manufacturer, adding that they “love competition.”

Zellmer told CNET Roadshow's Tim Stevens that there “aren't that many ways to prove that it is a true sports car,” saying that the Nurburgring is almost like a meter for testing a company’s status as a sports car manufacturer.

“Anyone who's trying to go there to see how you're doing, we have great respect for. We love the competition. It's their business. We respect them. They've prepared many markets for electric cars. They probably lowered the bar [of entry] for other markets opening up and for other brands entering the EV space, which is great. And whatever they want to do, if they want to take us up on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, it's their call,” he said.

"That's obviously going to limit [Tesla’s] relevance of what they've been doing," he added, referring to Tesla’s modified Model S.

The Tesla Model S is already practising and testing at Nurburgring in preparation for their lap competition with Porsche’s Taycan, which set a lap record at Nurburgring for electric sports cars recently. The Model S versions practising on the track are reportedly modified, yet the modifications remain unknown. 

One of the modifications is assumed by Insidevs to be the upcoming "Plaid" powertrain, with three motors and other performance-enhancing upgrades, with which a Model S just set a new record at the Laguna Seca track in California. For Nurburgring, the Model S is officially on the schedule for 21 September.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/science/201909171076820105-porsche-ceo-tesla-mod...

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The End of an Era

Will Tesla and Google Kill the German Car?

Threatened by entrepreneurs in California and by Chinese upstarts, German automakers are urgently trying to find their place in a new world of robots and electric cars. BMW, Daimler, Audi and VW set the standards for a century but have now fallen behind. By SPIEGEL Staff

History will be written on Nov. 4 at the VW plant in Zwickau, Germany. Anyone lucky enough to recently visit the factory, which is sealed behind blue rolling doors, entered into a secret world, a hidden industrial laboratory to which only a few Volkswagen employees have access. In its "ghost run," or test operation, orange-colored robots run by highly complex programs and aided by humans and machines assembled eight electric model-ID.3 cars per day for testing purposes. Serial production is now set to begin on Nov. 4. Depending on how you see it, this marks either the beginning or the end of an era

In the future, 1,500 electric Volkswagen cars are to roll off the assembly line at the plant in the eastern state of Saxony every day, a total of 330,000 vehicles every year, in what the company describes as the "largest and most efficient electric car factory in Europe." The designers of the new compact, C-class ID.3 want to make it a 21st century icon, just as the VW Beetle and VW Golf were in their heydays. That's advertising language, of course, but even from a neutral perspective, it is difficult to overestimate the significance of what is happening: In Zwickau, Volkswagen is ringing the death knell for the combustion engine. By 2040, VW plans to cease manufacturing all cars that run on gasoline or diesel fuel. It's the end of an era.

Read more:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/will-tesla-and-google-kill...

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The oil industry, a staunch opponent of electric vehicles (EVs), received an early Christmas present from the White House as President Trump reportedly intervened to quash an EV tax credit expansion from inclusion in a government spending package. 

The tax credit is meant to help offset the upfront cost of electric vehicles and boost the EV market. Consumers who purchase an EV can currently claim a credit up to $7,500, and the credit phases out once auto manufacturers sell 200,000 qualifying vehicles. Tesla and General Motors have both hit the 200,000-vehicle cap and had lobbied for an extension. A bipartisan proposal called for allowing a $7,000 credit for an additional 400,000 vehicles sold. 

That proposal, introduced earlier this year as the Driving America Forward Act, was rolled into a broader package of incentives for renewable energy that proponents hoped to pass as part of an end-of-year spending deal. But groups tied to the Koch network and backed by oil industry funding worked hard to kill the clean energy incentives. These groups sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week urging the Senate to oppose any bill that includes an EV tax credit extension. 

Ultimately the EV provision was dropped from the spending package. According to Forbes, “In last-minute negotiations over a massive package of spending bills designed to avert a government shutdown, the EV provision was lost in the shuffle and that was the outcome Republicans and President Trump wanted.” 

Trump specifically pushed for excluding the EV tax credit, as Bloomberg reported.

“There has been extreme resistance from the president. I don’t know why the White House would want to stop jobs and the future of the auto industry,” said Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, one of the original sponsors of the Driving America Forward Act. 

According to Bloomberg, White House pressure was a key factor in eliminating the EV tax credit extension: “White House officials warned lawmakers that if they tried to expand the electric vehicle credit as part of a compromise spending bill, it could tank the measure, according to two people familiar with the matter. The issue is particularly heated in the West Wing and among conservatives who view the credit as mainly benefiting rich Californians and Tesla.”

The American Energy Alliance, the main recipient of grant funds from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a major oil refinery trade organization, was one of the chief groups working to defeat the EV policy. In a press release, the AEA responded to the news by thanking the president and applauding him for “holding the line.” 

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/18/trump-oil-driving-america-forward-...

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In recent years, false claims have circulated that electric vehicles are "breaking our roads" because they don't use fuel and so their drivers don't pay fuel excise.

Heeding such concerns, both the Victorian and New South Wales governments are reportedly considering a new tax for electric vehicles. 

It follows a report by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia which recommended a per-kilometre tax for electric vehicles.

But this short-sighted approach risks killing the golden goose of our transport system. 

Such a tax would limit the economic, health and environmental benefits promised by electric vehicles which, together, far exceed any loss in fuel excise.

Instead, Australia needs a mature public discussion about holistic road tax reform to find a fair and sensible way forward.

Fuel excise is built into petrol and diesel prices, charged at around 40 cents per litre. 

For more than 20 years — well before the introduction of electric vehicles — net fuel tax revenue has been declining, largely due to improvements in vehicle efficiency, meaning engines use less fuel.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-24/a-proposed-new-tax-on-electric-ve...

The oil industry, a staunch opponent of electric vehicles (EVs), received an early Christmas present from the White House as President Trump reportedly intervened to quash an EV tax credit expansion from inclusion in a government spending package. 

The tax credit is meant to help offset the upfront cost of electric vehicles and boost the EV market. Consumers who purchase an EV can currently claim a credit up to $7,500, and the credit phases out once auto manufacturers sell 200,000 qualifying vehicles. Tesla and General Motors have both hit the 200,000-vehicle cap and had lobbied for an extension. A bipartisan proposal called for allowing a $7,000 credit for an additional 400,000 vehicles sold. 

That proposal, introduced earlier this year as the Driving America Forward Act, was rolled into a broader package of incentives for renewable energy that proponents hoped to pass as part of an end-of-year spending deal. But groups tied to the Koch network and backed by oil industry funding worked hard to kill the clean energy incentives. These groups sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week urging the Senate to oppose any bill that includes an EV tax credit extension. 

Ultimately the EV provision was dropped from the spending package. According to Forbes, “In last-minute negotiations over a massive package of spending bills designed to avert a government shutdown, the EV provision was lost in the shuffle and that was the outcome Republicans and President Trump wanted.” 

Trump specifically pushed for excluding the EV tax credit, as Bloomberg reported.

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/18/trump-oil-driving-america-forward-...

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Earlier this spring, while much of the nation’s attention focused on the coronavirus crisis, the U.S. oil and gas industry quietly launched a new coalition using messaging that invokes “transportation fairness.” Like other petroleum interest front groups that have campaigned against clean transportation measures, this new coalition appears poised to counter policies designed to accelerate the transition away from petroleum-powered transportation.

The Transportation Fairness Alliance (TFA), as the new coalition is called, describes itself as “a diverse partnership of businesses, associations, and organizations that support a competitive and equitable transportation sector. Collectively, we represent our nation’s manufacturers, small business owners, farmers, and folks who pay utility bills.”

Despite claims of “diversity” and “equity,” the coalition is comprised mainly of oil and gas trade associations with a vested interest in maintaining the petroleum-dependent transportation system status quo. Logos for these trade associations appear near the bottom of the website’s “About Us” section, making it no secret who is funding and driving this new alliance.

The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful U.S. oil and gas lobbying group, led the creation of the Transportation Fairness Alliance, DeSmog has learned. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), Petroleum Marketers Association of America, and the American Public Gas Association are all involved as well. The American Farm Bureau Federation, Agricultural Retailers Association, and a trucking group called the National Tank Truck Carriers are also involved. 

The bottom line is that these organizations represent the business interests of the petroleum and agriculture (i.e., biofuel) industries, which stand to lose profits from the electrification of the transportation system and increases in fuel efficiency. Public relations firm FTI Consulting, which manages other fossil fuel advocacy websites such as IPAA’s Energy in Depth, is also behind the Transportation Fairness Alliance website and the coalition’s communications.

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/06/18/transportation-fairness-alliance-o...

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Right before Markus Duesmann began his difficult mission, he fulfilled one of his life's dreams. Duesmann, the designated head of the German automaker Audi, hopped on a motorcycle and spent several months cruising around Europe, from Gibraltar to the Black Sea, from the North Cape to the British Isles. In all, he put more than 28,000 kilometers (17,400 miles) on the odometer.

That journey, Duesmann would later tell his confidants, helped him gain perspective. Indeed, there are many things he sees more clearly now: His respect for Europe, its size and its cultural diversity, he said, had grown. So had his respect for Audi's biggest competitor in the field of electric mobility: Tesla.

In the fall of 2019, Duesmann was sitting on his bike when he received a message from Berlin. The e-car pioneer Tesla was planning on opening a car factory just outside the capital. Duesmann laughed out loud. He was impressed by the Californians' audacity. "At first, none of us took Tesla seriously," the Audi CEO would later say. "Then we were puzzled - and then we were shocked by what they were capable of."

Tesla's Model 3 is one of the best-selling electric cars in Europe, way ahead of its German competition. The only carmaker that has recently outperformed Tesla is Renault with its tiny e-car, Zoe. The Californians are also ahead of the pack with their charging stations. The company has installed almost 5,000 of its "Superchargers" in 24 European countries. By comparison: Ionity, the charging station consortium of BMW, Daimler, VW and Ford, has so far only managed to install 1,160 electric charging columns.

The German government's subsidy to encourage the purchase of electric cars, which was recently increased to 9,000 euros ($10,276), is putting more pressure on automakers, with demand booming. In June alone, while the car market slumped overall, more than 8,000 e-cars were registered in Germany, a solid 40 percent more than in the previous year. Other European countries like Austria, France, Spain and Britain, are also spurring demand with their own subsidy programs.

Read more:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/vw-bwm-daimler-the-race-to-beat-tesla-at-its-own-game-a-58ddb443-29be-4764-9f5c-3d1140e0519f

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A replica of an early electric car c 1915 in Berlin, Germany.

New electric car Citröen, Berlin... (pictures by Gus Leonisky)

Fair dinkum, if one of your kids brought home a report card stuffed with as many Fs as the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) has handed out to Australian governments they’d be grounded for months.

The EVC has judged the federal and state governments on the progress they’re making when it comes to EV policy and it doesn’t make for good reading.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his federal government, which has plenty of fossil fuel fans, scores a dismal F for its efforts – or rather, its lack of them.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/auto/2020/09/18/scott-morrison-electric-cars/

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While Elon Musk is "speeding" with building his factory in Germany to make electric cars, Audi has released its first all electric vehicle: e-tron...

https://forms.audi.com.au/video/youtube/h-z8-3AyuBA?embedded=true&wide=true&rel=0

I hope the Germans are aware that "étron" in French has been familiarly used for "dog-shit" and shit in the open air in general, according to my friend Jules Letambour... 

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