The Electric Vehicle Council has said that Angus Taylor’s Future Fuels discussion paper is “yet another flaccid, do-nothing document that will prevent Australians getting access to the world’s best electric vehicles”.

The paper claims incentives for EV sales don’t stack up despite the rest of the world rapidly accelerating existing incentive programs. It points to the British government allocating more than $1 billion in subsidiaries for EV buyers and charging stations.

Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari says the discussion paper was acutely disappointing: “Global leaders from Biden to Boris are rushing to accelerate their transition to electric vehicles, but Angus Taylor reckons he knows something they don’t.

“The Prime Minister should have put Mr Taylor on the line to Joe Biden this week. He could have told the President why his EV plan is misguided. Mr Taylor might have clarified why his modelling shows the top recommendation of the International Energy Agency should be rejected.”

He adds that a rapid transition to EVs would clean the city air, drastically reduce carbon emissions and free Australia from insecure dependence on foreign oil imports.

“Angus Taylor is apparently happy to leave all those benefits on the table and cement Australia’s reputation as the world’s transport tech laggard,” Behyad says.

“Most other nations, including the US and the UK, have had fuel efficiency standards in place for decades. Taylor thinks we’re still not ready for even this modest measure.

“As always, the result of inaction in a dynamic environment is not stability. Australia’s inertia on EV has been noticed by the global auto sector, which now withholds the best and most affordable EVs from our market.

“Many of the most popular electric vehicles in the US and UK are unavailable to Australian consumers and that trend will rapidly accelerate under Taylor’s do-nothing plan.”