“We cannot support it:” Polestar follows Tesla out of car lobby over Toyota led campaign
“We cannot support it:” Polestar follows Tesla out of car lobby over Toyota led campaign
Polestar follows Tesla out the door of Australia’s main car lobby, saying its campaign against vehicle emission standards cannot be supported.
Tesla announced it had quit the FCAI on Thursday and Polestar followed it up on Friday, saying the FCAI campaign – driven largely by Japanese car makers led by Toyota – is intolerable.
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Tesla and now Polestar’s announcement that they intend to leave the FCAI adds to mounting pressure on CEO Tony Webber who last month came under fire for threatening to run a 2010 anti mining tax style fear campaign against the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard.
The fossil car lobby group CEO claimed that the NVES would cost the entire car-buying public $38 billion in the first five years, which led to the AFR running a story titled “Labor’s new EV-boosting rules will cost $38b, auto group says” followed by Coalition leader Peter Dutton and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan parroting claims that the NVES would see the price of popular vehicles increase by up to $25,000. Claims that have been widely rejected including by the Electric Vehicle Council.
I feel Toyota is doing huge damage to their reputation by going down this path. There's a line where "the safe and reliable choice" becomes "old and out of touch".
Toyota really screwed up in deciding that Hydrogen was the energy of the future. Even when everyone else in the world went with electricity they persisted in their failed vision. It's a shame that an otherwise great manufacturer should fall victim to such massive hubris but honestly I think their days are numbered as a major vehicle manufacturer.
There's no chance that hydrogen's going to be a long term success for them and with all their eggs in the one basket it looks like they're dead men walking.
Offsetting that dominant buyer inclination were record sales of eco-friendly cars, namely battery-electric vehicles (87,212, +161.1%), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (11,212, +88.8%) and the sought-after traditional hybrid cars, still the most popular alternative-fuel options with 98,439 units sold last year (+20.3%). Of the latter, Toyota alone sold 72,815 petrol-electric cars, representing 74 per cent of hybrid vehicle sales across all brands as well as 31.5 per cent of Toyota’s overall sales.
Toyota sold twice as many vehicles as the next best manufacturer. They dominate the SUV, van, Ute markets. I can't see them going anywhere soon.
They've been dancing on that line for pretty much the life of the company, at least at the lower end of their range. Their vehicles have been badly equipped as far as options go for as long as I've been driving.
I applaud them for calling out the BS publicly. I hope others brands follow, and I hope this story increases scrutiny on the misinformation being pushed. Unfortunately, this leaves the FCAI free to adopt an even more conservative position in its advocacy without dissenting member voices.
The companies that left can do their own advocacy though, without Toyota pushing fossil fuels and claiming to speak for them.
It’s amazing that catching up with the rest of the world and using safer more efficient technology already in use is so expensive and so difficult to implement. Who do they think we are, all LNP supporters?
Oh, man. Both sides of this argument are so disingenuous.
The "traditional" car makers are being sooks, because they've clearly been asleep at the wheel (hah!) and steadfastly refused to make reasonable progress on emissions reduction, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that we're killing our planet.
On the other hand, the EV car makers stand to make the most money from the new scheme, with much of it arguably coming from a new revenue stream of them being able to sell the first group their emissions credits. Let's ignore the fact for a moment that, here in Australia, much of the power that charges these EVs comes from burning coal.
This is on the Australia government, particularly those fucked-up Libs with their noses firmly planted up big business' collective arse, for not taking meaningful action much sooner.
Important note: I'm not a green warrior by any stretch, and I drive a regular ICE car. I'm just fed up with all the finger-pointing and blame-shifting for an issue that threatens us globally.
What is the issue they are talking about?
First Tesla and now Polestar have quit membership of the FCAI due to the automotive peak body’s misrepresentation of, and lobbying against, the government’s proposed fuel efficiency standards: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-07/tesla-quits-fcai-over-carbon-emissions-scheme/103558374