climateXchange

I've been hearing talk about a $2000 incentive the federal government are looking at offering for encouraging people to buy more fuel efficient cars…  …BUT estimates I heard suggest this is comes with a price tag of up to $400 per ton CO2 (I think I heard this on ABC radio, but not sure about its accuracy)

apparently its also funding which was originally destined for sustainable energy development (solar systems?)

a quick search found some info from http://www.centralwesterndaily…..94738.aspx

CAR owners thinking of trading in the old bomb will get a $2000 sweetener under a federal government plan to get more fuel-efficient cars on the road.

Those who trade in a car manufactured before 1995 will be eligible for a $2000 rebate when they purchase a vehicle that has a rating of six or higher in the government’s green vehicle guide.

The scheme will apply to the first 200,000 cars handed in.

….

With the eligible new or newer cars in the government’s green vehicle guide ranging from $13,000 to $40,000, Mr Grum said the rebate would be out of the reach of many people.

…

The government says the scheme will result in a reduction in carbon emissions of one million tonnes by 2014.

…

Will this really help with the whole CO2 savings – has anyone looked into this in more detail? – my feeling is that there are better places to be spending $400Million +

Thoughts?

I agree with the doubts you both raise. $2000 seems so little to begin with, Iwondered if people would find it worthwhile an incentive, given metals prices are so high at the moment they might as well scrap an old bomb and probably get decent money for the metal alone. If someone is hanging on to a car that old, either they are poor (and unlikely to be looking for a new car purchase to trade-in anyway) or it has sentimental value.

In some cases, it's questionable whether encouraging a new car purchase is necessarily best for the environment, given all the embedded energy involved, compared to purchasing a newer, second hand vehicle. I understood the number of cars to be affected by this policy was miniscule as well ~200,000 nationally, so it sounded populist but ineffectual from an environmental point of view.

If the govt. wants to enforce people purchasing cars that meet lower emissions standards it might have been better to keep raising the bar at periodic registration inspections and gradually phasing cars of a certain vintage out completely within 2 to 5 years say – without this price tag.

I also wonder if there are other measures that continue to be overlooked through the tax system. For example, why is it that so many Australian are purchasing 4WDs these days, when all they are doing is taking a couple of passengers around in urban driving? These cars are huge, heavy, and have features well beyond the needs of city driving. I learnt how to drive 4WD Land Rovers, and used to own a Nissan Ex-Terra, both in conditions that warrant that kind of vehicle. But here, I'm quite happy with my economical little 4 cylinder 2WD. 

Unless one works on a rural property or out bush on a regular basis, the features of 4WDs are largely wasted on city drivers. People who need such features to earn their income eg., farmers, rural workers, parks and wildlife rangers etc should be able to claim a rebate upon such proof via their tax returns, but everyone else should be paying a luxury tax on these cars at time of purchase. The plethora of luxury 4WD I see on Australian roads in recent years seems to signal a car manufacturing industry overservicing a misplaced consumer demand for an image out of proportion to the use of the vehicles – with ramifications for their impact on the environment in manufacture, use and end-of-life disposal. 

Another relevant aspect mentioned by the Canberra Branch of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association in a Canberra Times article (8 August 2010) is that the "cash for clunkers" scheme could damage the electric car industry by reducing the number of suitable cars available for conversion. Apparently, most Australian conversions from petrol to battery power use older cars as ''a shell'' to house a new electric motor.