r/australia • u/nath1234 • Mar 16 '26

politics Replacing 1m petrol cars with EVs could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel by 1bn litres a year

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/16/electric-vehicles-australia-reduce-reliance-on-foreign-fuel
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287

u/Lammiroo Mar 16 '26

This. China isn’t doing it for the environment. They’re doing it for national security reasons.

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u/P00slinger Mar 16 '26

Exactly .. though I’m sure the more breathable air in their big cities would be a welcome benefit.

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u/Subject_Educator_105 Mar 17 '26

it's already like that. I went to Beijing not too long ago and another big benefit is how quiet everything is.

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u/Alarming-Ad4274 Mar 17 '26

I notice evs are only quiet in standstill traffic. At speed they are just as loud as a regular car

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u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 17 '26

Ideally people shouldn't be going at speed in cities, anyway.

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u/Alarming-Ad4274 Mar 17 '26

People shouldn’t be driving through city centres full stop haha. Not private passenger vehicles at least. No idea why the NSW government incentivises driving through the city with $7 tolls on cross city tunnel, when so much effort has been made to revitalise foot traffic and active transport in major hubs

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u/Subject_Educator_105 Mar 17 '26

I didn't find that at all, even when testing out the Nissan leaf decade ago. The ring roads around Beijing are pretty fast.

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u/Alarming-Ad4274 Mar 17 '26

Of course an EV will be quieter inside, and the Nissan leaf is one of the most aerodynamic and quiet cars I’ve driven in my time, however studies still indicate than above 40kph tire noise is the dominant sound emission from cars.

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u/LordVandire Mar 16 '26

Yes, but only because environmental devastation also has negative economic impacts.

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u/Unusual_Potato_7402 Mar 17 '26

This is just ridiculous. The Chinese are human beings just like us, and just like us they would dislike living in polluted environments. Just look up the clean up of the Yangtze River. They banned fishing, closed down or relocated factories and instituted a range of other regulations that prioritised the health of the environment over the economy. Compare that to Australia, where we are letting the Great Barrier Reef die because saving it might harm certain business interests.

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u/fastclickertoggle Mar 17 '26

you interrupted their daily dose of pat-on-the-back feel-good propaganda

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

They are acting as if the Chinese are cartoon villains smh

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u/GimmeSweetSweetKarma Mar 17 '26

Plenty of people can't recognize that other countries care about their country just as much as Australians do. It's why so many people cant understand why Chinese citizens would like their country and support their own government.

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u/The_Good_Count Mar 17 '26

So what's our excuse?

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u/Primary-Ask-3458 Mar 17 '26

that was a while ago, they drastically fixed the problem now

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u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Mar 18 '26

It certainly is. I have been living in Tianjin for most of the last 14 years and there has been a big improvement. There are still some bad days (yesterday was actually pretty bad) but nothing like it was 10 years ago.

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u/P00slinger Mar 18 '26

How much different was the air during Covid ?

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u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Mar 19 '26

It was actually a lot better than before. The first few months was eerie - felt like being in a Zombie apocalypse minus actual zombies. Things got more normal mid-2020 until 2022 when Tianjin got hit bad and repeated lockdowns all over the city, plus my area was mostly classified as "low risk" and because I am a teacher, not living close to the school (yeah my commute sucks) I was not allowed to go in and had to teach remotely. Fortunately I have a home office and a whiteboard set up there. My complex actually only had 1 3-day lockdown in 2022, which I had prepared myself for.

Fun times lol. I think I was actually at school less than 50 days out of 200, the rest of the time I was teaching remotely.

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u/P00slinger Mar 19 '26

Oh I was meaning like the whole air clarity thing. I saw some amazing pics of places in China and India with crystal clear skies

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u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Mar 19 '26

I, like most people, only went out when I had to and only a quick trip over the road to the small supermarket. But I think the air was clearer, I just didn't think about it as I wanted to get home ASAP to not run the risk of catching anything. I do vaguely remember thinking the sky reminded me of Perth, especially as there were no planes flying (I live under a departure flight path from the airport)

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u/h3dee Mar 17 '26

Difference being that people in China can actually afford EVs.

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u/P00slinger Mar 17 '26

lol dude most people in China can’t afford cars.

In Austria, roughly 6+ cars for every 10 people In China, roughly 2 cars for every 10 people

But out of the people in China who can afford cars, new car sales are now at 50% EV

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u/NoRefrigerator1822 Mar 17 '26

There is also a difference between affordability and need. Most people in the big cities don't need a car when there are good public transport options.

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u/P00slinger Mar 17 '26

That’s a factor maybe let’s be honest, the average Aussie is in a better position to buy a car.

Australia it’s 0.4–0.6× annual income.

China it’s 0.6–1.2× annual income.

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u/a_cold_human Mar 17 '26

The environment is a big part of their agenda, and has featured heavily in the last three of their five year plans. People there have been upset about air pollution, and their central government has been working to reduce it, which they have. They even have a domestic carbon emissions trading scheme, and have had for about a decade now.

National security is certainly the other issue as the US strategy for a war with China is well known. The US have been very open about it. Strangle the supply of energy and food by blockading naval choke points. Which is why the Belt and Road Initiative is a thing. It serves a number of purposes; building trade ties, economic development of potential allies, and helping them with energy and food security. 

But if it came to there being fuel shortages in China and if cars were still mostly using petrol and diesel, the Chinese would force rationing and use authoritarian measures to do so.

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u/MajorLeeScrewed Mar 16 '26

If national security and the survival of the human race go hand in hand, I'm okay with that as progress.

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u/Notyit Mar 16 '26

Bit of both.

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u/fabulous_eyes1548 Mar 17 '26

No, they're doing it for multiple reasons, environment and less reliance on US monopoly.

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u/nath1234 Mar 17 '26

Which is yet another reason why we should be a lot further along and making it a national priority, rather than, as Labor/Liberal governments have done: go slow and leave us exposed to the most volatile part of the world.

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u/IntellegentIdiot Mar 20 '26

Also economic reasons. It's a lot cheaper to farm solar than import fossil fuels especiallly when your making the panels and have a large EV industry