Labor sparks push to lower cost of power and electric cars

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said just 0.7 per cent of cars sold in Australia were electric compared with the global average of 4.2pc and 75pc in Norway.

Labor would cut government taxes on non-luxury electric vehicles, including import taxes and fringe benefits tax, to ensure more Australians who want electric cars can afford them.

He said Labor's electric car discount would encourage uptake, cutting fuel and transport costs for households while reducing emissions.

The discount would encourage car makers to supply more affordable electric vehicles to the Australia market.

An Albanese Labor Government would also develop Australia's first national electric vehicle (EV) strategy.

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Labor would encourage Australian manufacturing of EV components and consider leveraging existing Commonwealth investments in its fleet and infrastructure spend to increase electric vehicle stock.

The community battery plan - dubbed Power to the People - would cut power bills, support the grid and reduce emissions, he said.

Australians had been voting with their feet on solar with a world-leading one in five household rooftops now sporting panels.

But solar households were still reliant on the grid when the sun wasn't shining as only one in 60 households had battery storage because of high upfront costs.

Labor's Power to the People plan promised $200 million to install 400 community batteries across the country.

It would support 100,000 households by storing energy from solar panels during the day and drawing on it at night.

"Labor's Power to the People will invest in Australia's future and help Australia catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to electric vehicles."

The nation's peak automotive body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), welcomed the plan to lift the uptake of electric cars.

"It is refreshing that we can now start to have meaningful discussion about increasing the number of low emission vehicles on our roads and the subsequent improvement to our national environmental performance, customer choice and communities through this technology," FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said.

"Australia is lagging the rest of the world when it comes to a long-term vision for the continued penetration of low emission vehicles," he said.

"The Labor announcement gets the topic back onto the policy agenda and that is critical right now.

"Positive signals like this can encourage global car brands to increase the choice of low emission vehicles available in our market which in turn increases the adoption of electrified vehicles available to customers."

Mr Weber said in the absence of direction and targets from the federal government, the FCAI and its members had introduced its own voluntary CO2 emissions standard targets for 2030 and reported for the first time last week.

"The automotive sector is ready and willing to participate when it comes to a direction on emissions reduction and the adoption of world's best vehicle technology."