SHE’S ELECTRIC

NEVER MIND all the huffing and puffing coming from the Prime Minister’s office (which, if only you could somehow harness it, would surely provide more than enough hot air to feed our alternative-energy needs) about how only he can save us from the battery-powered cars that are coming to somehow steal your weekend. The fact is, he doth protest too late, because the electric-vehicle revolution isn’t coming – it’s already upon us, whether the climate deniers like it or not.

There are several reasons for this, of course; from ever-stricter global emissions targets that are making it harder (and more expensive) to build compliant petrol and diesel engines, to the growing awareness of our warming planet and the need, as global citizens, to reduce our overall C02 emissions.

But the biggest reason is actually one far more obvious than those: the fact that we don’t actually build vehicles in Australia any more, we only import them. And that means it’s now less a case of what we want, and more a case of us taking what the global automotive giants give us. Or taking the bus.

The Volkswagen Group (think VW, Porsche, Skoda, Audi and Lamborghini), for example, is planning to launch around 70 electric models by 2028, part of its push for EVs to make up 40 per cent