Faced with runaway climate change and a commitment to cut emissions rapidly, our government is investing heavily to promote the uptake of electric cars and clean up our transport sector.
And it is having a measurable effect.
Bolstered by a wide-ranging suite of incentives, tax exemptions and rebates, electric cars have surged from 3% of new car sales in 2022 to more than 8% as of June this year.
Despite these gains, electric cars make up a relatively tiny proportion of all cars on the road – around 1%. Conventional cars will continue polluting our cities and towns for a long time to come.
But perhaps not as long as we think? Perhaps we have game-changing tool at our disposal in our pursuit of net-zero, and perhaps there are easy steps governments can take to realise its potential?
We’re talking of course about the e-bike.
By broadening our vision to consider e-bikes part of the electric vehicle landscape, we can greatly accelerate our efforts on climate action, help clean up our cities and encourage active lifestyles all over Australia.
There are many ways governments can do this, by offering rebates for e-bike buyers, funding e-bike libraries or incorporating e-bikes into the National Electric Vehicle Strategy.
Bicycle Network has and continues to campaign on these measures (among others), but is this week focused on one in particular.
Our CEO Alison McCormack has this week written to the Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen and Treasurer Jim Chalmers asking for a simple change to the fringe benefit tax rules for people salary sacrificing e-bikes.
Last year, the fringe benefit tax was scrapped for people salary sacrificing electric cars and plug-in hybrids, even if they never use it for business purposes. This has greatly accelerated the uptake of electric cars, to the point where they now make up nearly half of all novated leases in Australia.
Extending these same exemptions to e-bike buyers, for whom cost is also a barrier, would empower many thousands to leave their cars at home each day. According to the National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association, this one change would result in 57,800 extra e-bikes on the street within a year.
It is time to alter our approach, release the handbrake and watch e-bikes take off alongside electric cars. Placed on equal footing, these two could achieve great things together.
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