China masking hostile goals with ‘charm and flattery', Scott Morrison warns

The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

Sydney Morning Herald

21 minutes ago

Sydney Morning Herald

The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

'We're interested in making sure that this rapid growth in these emerging markets doesn't follow the same trajectory as the developed markets,' said Rob de Jong, head of sustainable transportation for the United Nations Environment Program. But as Nepal has learnt, there are obstacles. The country has spent heavily on subsidies for EVs, and getting rid of the support too quickly could derail the shift to battery power. Even if petrol-powered passenger cars are phased out, cleaning the air will require public transportation to go electric as well. The Asian Development Bank, a multinational development lender, has been a key financier of Nepal's dams, transmission lines and charging networks. The head of the bank's resident mission in Nepal, Arnaud Cauchois, is cautious about the risk of backsliding. 'Given the economic sense that this EV conversion represents for Nepal, I think I would see it as unlikely that we would have major policy change,' Cauchois said. 'But that's basically a wish more than a conviction.' From Indian petrol to Chinese cars Many countries are trying to electrify their vehicle fleets, but the case for doing so is even more obvious in Nepal, with its clean energy embodied in the rivers that run down from the Himalayas. A 2015 border skirmish with India squeezed Nepal's petroleum imports, then its largest energy source. After that, the government invested heavily in hydropower and grid infrastructure, which have provided cheap, non-polluting sources of electricity. Nearly all households now have access, and the rolling blackouts have ended. To maximise the potential of its homegrown power, Nepal would need to use it for transportation. But EVs were still too expensive for mass adoption in a country with a per-capita economic output of about $US1400 ($2150). So, the government pulled all the levers it had to provide incentives. Nepal's primary source of revenue is taxes on imports. To make EVs cheaper, the government set its customs and excise taxes on the cars at a combined maximum of 40 per cent in 2021, compared with 180 per cent for petrol-powered cars. Now, the electric version of one Hyundai SUV costs less than $US38,000, while the petrol-powered model is about $US40,000. The Nepal Electricity Authority built 62 charging stations, in Kathmandu and on highways across the country. It allowed anyone to build chargers, levied negligible tariffs on their import and gave away transformers – the priciest component. Finally, the government set electricity costs for chargers at less than market rates. At those prices, fuelling a petrol-powered car cost about 15 times as much as charging an electric one. That was enough to create a business model for hotels, restaurants and other roadside entrepreneurs to install chargers on their own. 'At first, everybody was scared – how to establish and whether it would run or not,' said Kul Man Ghising, who managed the electricity authority until March. 'But we tried and tried and tried.' Businesses have now installed about 1200 chargers, according to the agency, and private residences are likely to have thousands more. 'A win-win situation' At first, automotive dealers were sceptical. But Yamuna Shrestha saw the potential. Originally a distributor for solar power equipment made by BYD, the largest electric car company in China, she saw some of its new models on a trip to the company's Shenzhen headquarters in 2016. She secured the licence to distribute BYD vehicles in Nepal a few years later, when few others thought EVs could gain traction. 'Many people were pushing for fossil fuels, but there was no one advocating for electric vehicles,' Shrestha said. Her sales took off when BYD released cars that could go further on a single charge and had high enough clearance to cope with Nepal's rough roads. Now, she has 18 dealerships and expects to sell 4000 vehicles in 2025. Loading But the competition is withering, as dozens of Chinese brands have entered the market. Dealers of Indian-made vehicles say they can't match the low price and high quality of vehicles coming from Chinese manufacturers, which have been pressing to get into any markets they can. 'There is a kind of geopolitical push when it comes to EVs that come into Nepal,' said Karan Kumar Chaudhary, who runs Suzuki dealerships and leads the Automobiles Association of Nepal. 'You are talking about models that compete with Tesla that are coming in at half the price of a Tesla, which is unrealistic, right? As a consumer, it's a win-win situation.' Jit Bahadur Shahi was convinced. After retiring from the national police last year, he paid about $US33,000 for a new electric minibus. He ferries passengers seven hours from Kathmandu to his town, Janakpur, on the Indian border. Ten round trips are enough to cover his monthly loan payments, and he expects to pay off the van in four years. 'It's OK. I'm happy,' Shahi, 43, said while charging the van on a Saturday. 'But the problem is that charging stations are not everywhere.' He also worries how much it will cost to fix the van after the warranty expires, and what will happen when its battery wears out. Loading Businesses and advocates in the country are concerned that Nepal may already be backing off its commitment to the electric transition. The young democracy has had three prime ministers in the past five years, and priorities have shifted with each of them. The nation's central bank doubled down-payment requirements for EVs this year. The federal government, seeing declining revenues from car imports, has been inching up its tariffs on EVs. The government also does not have a plan for the collection or recycling of batteries. And auto dealers worry that faulty vehicles from some of the smaller Chinese brands could discredit the category. They're pushing for an agency that would independently certify safety and quality. Rajan Babu Shrestha holds the licence to distribute cars in Nepal from Indian manufacturer Tata Motors. He has seen sales rocket on his electric models, but he could go back to selling petrol-powered vehicles if tariffs rose or subsidies for charging stations went away. 'It's a very positive direction they are going in, but it really comes down to the long-term policy,' Shrestha said. 'Stability is always a question mark.' EVs for everybody For now, the electric shift in passenger vehicles is moving swiftly. But a vast majority of Nepal's residents don't have cars. Instead, they use cheaper motorbikes or mostly petrol- and diesel-powered buses. If Nepal is to clean its air, it will have to electrify and expand its public transportation fleet as well. Chiri Babu Maharjan is the mayor of Lalitpur, the city across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu. Legions of scooters have made it difficult for vehicles of any kind to get anywhere on the narrow roads. Electric two-wheelers have not gained much traction in Nepal, as they have in India. 'We are trying to reduce fossil fuel vehicles in my town,' Maharjan said. 'This is very difficult, but we must do something.' The solution, he said, was to give his constituents a better alternative. To do that, Maharjan has placed his trust in Sajha Yatayat, a bus company that is mostly owned by the state. Electric buses are expensive, and transit fares in the region are capped at about US36¢ (55¢) for the longest ride. That makes financing the purchases difficult. Nepal's government has stepped in with about $US22 million to buy them. For the past two years, Sajha Yatayat has been running 41 green-painted electric buses. But Kanak Mani Dixit, who until recently served as Sajha Yatayat's chair, thinks about 800 of them are needed to establish a network of routes with enough frequency to replace individual vehicles. China is stepping into this front, too. Recently, the Chinese government offered to give Nepal 100 more 12-metre-long buses at no cost. Dixit acknowledges that China may have its own motivations, such as increasing acceptance of its larger electric models, but he doesn't worry about it. 'We have been accepting foreign assistance since 1950, and this is foreign assistance,' he said. Even with more buses, taming the chaotic scrum of exhaust-spewing motorbikes will require a regional transportation authority that could clear more space for public transit. The agency's creation has been mired in political disagreement, but Dixit hopes it can finally make clean, accessible mobility a reality. 'The Kathmandu Valley is just waiting for someone to turn the key,' Dixit said. 'Coincidentally, this is the time exactly when the electric buses have made an entry. And you could just suddenly find things much different another five years from now.'

In the current climate, the Coalition looks cooked

Sydney Morning Herald

21 minutes ago

Sydney Morning Herald

In the current climate, the Coalition looks cooked

'We are in that situation with the Liberals,' with the electoral changeover to new generations of Australian voters, says Samaras. 'The Libs are extra vulnerable to takeover at the ballot box. If the teals can form a network or coalition or whatever you want to call it, they could be it. They could push the Liberals completely off the electoral map.' While there are fewer than 10 Liberal-held seats in the cities available for possible teal takeover, there are country seats that could be open to challenge by community independents like Helen Haines, who represents the predominantly rural Victorian seat of Indi. Rather than rage against climate realities and renewables investment, Haines is preoccupied with making the transition work for her constituents. She's proposed a 20 per cent share in the profits from big renewable projects for regional communities, for instance. Climate wasn't always a losing argument for the Coalition. It won some of the critical early battles of the climate wars. Barnaby Joyce was the original Coalition climate warrior. From the Nationals backbench, he illuminated the political pathway for Tony Abbott to follow. Climate scepticism worked for Tony 'climate change is crap' Abbott. It worked for Scott 'lump of coal' Morrison, until it did not. It did not work for Peter 'nuke 'em' Dutton. And it won't work for Sussan 'moderniser' Ley. If she goes there. But, thanks to the Nationals, it might not much matter. Because Barnaby, once again, is leading the Coalition into the rejection of climate change policy in all its manifestations. His current campaign is to abolish the Nationals' commitment to net zero. Which seems odd. Because he was the party's leader who signed on to net zero in a deal with then-prime minister Scott Morrison only four years ago. Even 'lump of coal' Morrison could see that Australia would be marooned, missing out on the global $US200 trillion ($311 trillion) renewables investment boom, unless it could commit to the bare minimum of plausible climate policy – net zero emissions by 2050. Such national responsibilities mean nothing to the rabble-rousing Joyce and company. The populist obscurantists in the Nats are more interested in incendiaries than investments. They only agreed to Morrison's net zero plan because he bribed them with some $30 billion in government spending promises plus an extra seat in the cabinet. But today there are no bribes on offer. Opposition parties have no access to the Treasury or seats in the cabinet. So Joyce is unchecked. He's been joined by his former rival for the Nationals leadership, Michael McCormack. They have enough internal support and momentum to succeed. The man supposed to be leading them, David Littleproud, is meekly following them. Not formally, not yet, but it seems inevitable that he will. His job is on the line otherwise. 'The Nats will be great,' says Samaras. 'They're not losing anything out of this. Their rural constituencies are older and their seats are safe.' Joyce & Co are fomenting a country-versus-city resentment – the countryside is being destroyed by toxic solar farms and fascist new power lines so that rich city investors can make money from them. But the Liberals? What do they do? They don't have a formal position at the moment. It's under review, and the party is divided. One argument is that they adopted net zero and lost anyway. So why not ditch it? The counter is that they didn't lose because of net zero, that it was overshadowed by an unpopular nuclear reactor plan. And that a party that aspires to government must have a credible climate and energy policy as a prerequisite to power. Loading But the Liberals face a wicked dilemma. With their junior Coalition partner exuberantly trampling climate change for the next three years, the Libs will have three options. One, join the Nats and suffer more electoral damage. The Liberals were all but driven out of the cities in the May election. Of the 88 seats classified by the Electoral Commission as metropolitan, Labor holds 71. The Liberals hold just nine. They can't aspire to government without a recovery in the cities. And if they embrace Barnaby's climate policy, they can pretty much forget about that. Two, the Libs can outline a separate policy and spend three years arguing with the Nats over it, which would be divisive and ugly. And how do you take two conflicting policies to an election? Three, the Libs can terminate the Coalition and go solo, much as Littleproud did by splitting with the Libs in the Eight-Day War in May. But that would be likely to mean being sentenced to permanent opposition – or oblivion – for both. The Libs don't have enough seats in their own right, and the Nationals don't have enough votes and rely on Liberal preferences. When Barnaby first launched the climate wars over a dozen years ago, they were directed against Labor. Today, the Nats' climate war is waged against the Liberals just as much. A war against the enemy has turned into a war against the supposed ally. It's not that Labor's renewables plan is rolling out smoothly. One of the gurus, Ross Garnaut, gave a damning speech this week calling the energy transition 'sick'. The entire national enterprise was 'on a path to comprehensive failure'. There is a big and rich political fight to be had. Not in raging against the reality of climate change or the advantages of energy transition, but in interrogating the government's execution of it. The smart course for the Coalition is not to attack Labor's goals but its incompetence in reaching them. A colleague of Kos Samaras, fellow Redbridge director and former Liberal campaign chief Tony Barry, sees the opportunity cost of the Nats' climate crusade: 'There are massive problems with the rollout for [Minister for Climate Change and Energy] Chris Bowen, and if Barnaby Joyce retired tomorrow he'd be beside himself. Barnaby keeps giving him a 'get out of jail' card.' Loading As the pollster for this masthead, Jim Reed of Resolve Strategic, puts it: 'The public debate about climate change is largely over, but the conversation about what to do about it, how urgently and at what cost still rages.' But a Coalition lost in delusion and distraction can't prosecute these real problems while it's caught up in ideological and irrelevant ones. 'The Liberals,' concludes Samaras, 'are in the killing zone'. It's just that, like the Black Knight, the Coalition seems unable to grasp the reality of its situation. As the victorious Arthur goes on his way, the Black Knight, now legless as well as armless, demands that the king come back and keep fighting. 'What are you going to do, bleed on me?' retorts Arthur.

The Age

21 minutes ago

The Age

The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

'We're interested in making sure that this rapid growth in these emerging markets doesn't follow the same trajectory as the developed markets,' said Rob de Jong, head of sustainable transportation for the United Nations Environment Program. But as Nepal has learnt, there are obstacles. The country has spent heavily on subsidies for EVs, and getting rid of the support too quickly could derail the shift to battery power. Even if petrol-powered passenger cars are phased out, cleaning the air will require public transportation to go electric as well. The Asian Development Bank, a multinational development lender, has been a key financier of Nepal's dams, transmission lines and charging networks. The head of the bank's resident mission in Nepal, Arnaud Cauchois, is cautious about the risk of backsliding. 'Given the economic sense that this EV conversion represents for Nepal, I think I would see it as unlikely that we would have major policy change,' Cauchois said. 'But that's basically a wish more than a conviction.' From Indian petrol to Chinese cars Many countries are trying to electrify their vehicle fleets, but the case for doing so is even more obvious in Nepal, with its clean energy embodied in the rivers that run down from the Himalayas. A 2015 border skirmish with India squeezed Nepal's petroleum imports, then its largest energy source. After that, the government invested heavily in hydropower and grid infrastructure, which have provided cheap, non-polluting sources of electricity. Nearly all households now have access, and the rolling blackouts have ended. To maximise the potential of its homegrown power, Nepal would need to use it for transportation. But EVs were still too expensive for mass adoption in a country with a per-capita economic output of about $US1400 ($2150). So, the government pulled all the levers it had to provide incentives. Nepal's primary source of revenue is taxes on imports. To make EVs cheaper, the government set its customs and excise taxes on the cars at a combined maximum of 40 per cent in 2021, compared with 180 per cent for petrol-powered cars. Now, the electric version of one Hyundai SUV costs less than $US38,000, while the petrol-powered model is about $US40,000. The Nepal Electricity Authority built 62 charging stations, in Kathmandu and on highways across the country. It allowed anyone to build chargers, levied negligible tariffs on their import and gave away transformers – the priciest component. Finally, the government set electricity costs for chargers at less than market rates. At those prices, fuelling a petrol-powered car cost about 15 times as much as charging an electric one. That was enough to create a business model for hotels, restaurants and other roadside entrepreneurs to install chargers on their own. 'At first, everybody was scared – how to establish and whether it would run or not,' said Kul Man Ghising, who managed the electricity authority until March. 'But we tried and tried and tried.' Businesses have now installed about 1200 chargers, according to the agency, and private residences are likely to have thousands more. 'A win-win situation' At first, automotive dealers were sceptical. But Yamuna Shrestha saw the potential. Originally a distributor for solar power equipment made by BYD, the largest electric car company in China, she saw some of its new models on a trip to the company's Shenzhen headquarters in 2016. She secured the licence to distribute BYD vehicles in Nepal a few years later, when few others thought EVs could gain traction. 'Many people were pushing for fossil fuels, but there was no one advocating for electric vehicles,' Shrestha said. Her sales took off when BYD released cars that could go further on a single charge and had high enough clearance to cope with Nepal's rough roads. Now, she has 18 dealerships and expects to sell 4000 vehicles in 2025. Loading But the competition is withering, as dozens of Chinese brands have entered the market. Dealers of Indian-made vehicles say they can't match the low price and high quality of vehicles coming from Chinese manufacturers, which have been pressing to get into any markets they can. 'There is a kind of geopolitical push when it comes to EVs that come into Nepal,' said Karan Kumar Chaudhary, who runs Suzuki dealerships and leads the Automobiles Association of Nepal. 'You are talking about models that compete with Tesla that are coming in at half the price of a Tesla, which is unrealistic, right? As a consumer, it's a win-win situation.' Jit Bahadur Shahi was convinced. After retiring from the national police last year, he paid about $US33,000 for a new electric minibus. He ferries passengers seven hours from Kathmandu to his town, Janakpur, on the Indian border. Ten round trips are enough to cover his monthly loan payments, and he expects to pay off the van in four years. 'It's OK. I'm happy,' Shahi, 43, said while charging the van on a Saturday. 'But the problem is that charging stations are not everywhere.' He also worries how much it will cost to fix the van after the warranty expires, and what will happen when its battery wears out. Loading Businesses and advocates in the country are concerned that Nepal may already be backing off its commitment to the electric transition. The young democracy has had three prime ministers in the past five years, and priorities have shifted with each of them. The nation's central bank doubled down-payment requirements for EVs this year. The federal government, seeing declining revenues from car imports, has been inching up its tariffs on EVs. The government also does not have a plan for the collection or recycling of batteries. And auto dealers worry that faulty vehicles from some of the smaller Chinese brands could discredit the category. They're pushing for an agency that would independently certify safety and quality. Rajan Babu Shrestha holds the licence to distribute cars in Nepal from Indian manufacturer Tata Motors. He has seen sales rocket on his electric models, but he could go back to selling petrol-powered vehicles if tariffs rose or subsidies for charging stations went away. 'It's a very positive direction they are going in, but it really comes down to the long-term policy,' Shrestha said. 'Stability is always a question mark.' EVs for everybody For now, the electric shift in passenger vehicles is moving swiftly. But a vast majority of Nepal's residents don't have cars. Instead, they use cheaper motorbikes or mostly petrol- and diesel-powered buses. If Nepal is to clean its air, it will have to electrify and expand its public transportation fleet as well. Chiri Babu Maharjan is the mayor of Lalitpur, the city across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu. Legions of scooters have made it difficult for vehicles of any kind to get anywhere on the narrow roads. Electric two-wheelers have not gained much traction in Nepal, as they have in India. 'We are trying to reduce fossil fuel vehicles in my town,' Maharjan said. 'This is very difficult, but we must do something.' The solution, he said, was to give his constituents a better alternative. To do that, Maharjan has placed his trust in Sajha Yatayat, a bus company that is mostly owned by the state. Electric buses are expensive, and transit fares in the region are capped at about US36¢ (55¢) for the longest ride. That makes financing the purchases difficult. Nepal's government has stepped in with about $US22 million to buy them. For the past two years, Sajha Yatayat has been running 41 green-painted electric buses. But Kanak Mani Dixit, who until recently served as Sajha Yatayat's chair, thinks about 800 of them are needed to establish a network of routes with enough frequency to replace individual vehicles. China is stepping into this front, too. Recently, the Chinese government offered to give Nepal 100 more 12-metre-long buses at no cost. Dixit acknowledges that China may have its own motivations, such as increasing acceptance of its larger electric models, but he doesn't worry about it. 'We have been accepting foreign assistance since 1950, and this is foreign assistance,' he said. Even with more buses, taming the chaotic scrum of exhaust-spewing motorbikes will require a regional transportation authority that could clear more space for public transit. The agency's creation has been mired in political disagreement, but Dixit hopes it can finally make clean, accessible mobility a reality. 'The Kathmandu Valley is just waiting for someone to turn the key,' Dixit said. 'Coincidentally, this is the time exactly when the electric buses have made an entry. And you could just suddenly find things much different another five years from now.'

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The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

In the current climate, the Coalition looks cooked

The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

China masking hostile goals with ‘charm and flattery', Scott Morrison warns

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The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

In the current climate, the Coalition looks cooked

The country where 76 per cent of cars sold are electric

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