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MTA Plays Leading Role at Climate Change Conference
by Boylen
In April the South Australian Government held its inaugural SA Industry Climate Change Conference and the MTA contributed to the event by providing its expert insights as Australia makes strides to reduce its emissions.
Automotive is amidst a revolutionary turning point representing some of the most significant innovations to mobility and transport seen in living memory.
CEO Darrell Jacobs presented the MTA’s vision as South Australia decarbonises its vehicle fleet and becomes more energy efficient. He was joined by RAA CEO Nick Reade for a panel titled ‘The Future of Transport’ at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
The event was held a number of days after the Federal Government released its anticipated National Electric Vehicle Strategy. The central pillar of the strategy is a fuel efficiency standard.
“Without a fuel efficiency standard manufacturers have been prioritising other markets which penalise car brands for not meeting emissions benchmarks,” Darrell commented at the conference.
“We are also pleased that the government has listened to our calls and not banned the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles.
“There is a recognition – whether it’s hydrogen, plug-in hybrid and hybrid or even more efficient fuels – everything has a role to play in the transition.”
Darrell also provided context about the timeline of electric vehicle uptake.
“I’ve got three numbers I want to share with you,” he told the audience.
“There are 20 million cars on the road today, there are one million new cars sold every year in Australia and electric vehicles are six per cent of these new sales.
“So if even if we hypothetically sold 100 per cent electric vehicles each year and we have 20 million cars on the road it is still going to take a little bit of time for EV penetration.”
Amid the discussion, Darrell said automotive had the ability to develop the pipeline of future technicians.
“One of the challenges we all have in our business is skills and there is a huge skills shortage through automotive,” he said.
“We need to work with schools where you can change the paradigm from grease and spanners to technology, scanning tools and computers.
“I think the automotive industry has a real opportunity to change that thinking and attract a whole new range of people in our industry to work on really exciting cars.”
The MTA’s contribution in front of industry leaders, businesses and decision-makers was well received and helped cap off the conference’s first day of proceedings. More than 800 guests attended the inaugural event over its two days.
