Queensland drivers looking to buy an electric vehicle (EV) will no longer be eligible for the state’s generous $6000 rebate, which is set to end at midnight tonight.
In a press release issued over the weekend, Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads Bart Mellish announced the Zero Emission Vehicle Rebate Scheme would be scrapped on Tuesday 3 September, more than two years after it was launched.
Originally launched on 1 July 2022 with a $45 million incentive package to encourage Queensland drivers to buy electric vehicles, the program initially offered a $3000 rebate to buyers of battery-powered vehicles with a list price of $58,000 or less.
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The threshold is increased to $68,000 from 1 July 2023, with the rebate doubling to $6,000 – the highest any Australian jurisdiction has offered to subsidise the purchase of an electric vehicle.
The program is now being phased out ahead of its scheduled mid-2025 deadline, with the Queensland Government claiming more than 10,000 residents have benefited from the program since it was launched in July 2022.
However, the report also said that more than 46,000 new electric vehicles were purchased in the same period, suggesting that the majority were purchased without discounts.
The program ended early due to the depletion of the money allocated for the rebates, as well as “significant declines in new vehicle prices, with prices of popular models falling by 10-30 percent from the end of 2023.”
According to the State Government, about one per cent of all cars registered in Queensland are now electric, compared to just 0.2 per cent when the program began.
The Queensland government has previously announced it will spend $10 million to co-fund more public EV chargers and replace all eligible government fleet vehicles with electric vehicles when current leases expire.
Queensland is the fourth Australian state to end its electric vehicle rebate scheme ahead of schedule, although it is believed to be the first to do so after all funding for the incentives was exhausted.
Victoria has ended its $3,000 electric vehicle subsidy on 30 June 2023 – much earlier than the planned end date of May 2024 (or when 20,000 rebates had been distributed) and just over two years since it began in May 2021.
Between September 2021 and January 2024, 25,000 New South Wales residents could have received a $3,000 rebate on electric vehicles costing up to $68,750, but the scheme was scrapped before its sales target was met.
South Australia has ended its $3000 rebate on new electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles priced under $68,750 before on-road costs on 1 January 2024 – 18 months ahead of its scheduled end date of June 2025.
THAN: What discounts and incentives are available for electric vehicles across Australia?
