As is the case with other parts of the world, Australia is aiming to implement stricter emissions standards via its New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which calls for increasingly stringent average CO2 targets across entire automaker fleets, which essentially forces companies to offer more low- or zero-emissions vehicles in the coming years. If automakers fail to meet these targets, they would have two choices – pay penalties, or buy credits from other automakers, which can be earned by meeting or exceeding those same targets. However, it doesn’t seem as if Ford is too concerned about this possibility.
According to Drive, Ford believes that it’s in a good position at the moment to comply with NVES, as it fields a solid mix of plug-in hybrids and EVs that will compensate for its traditional ICE models in that country. This, despite the fact that the Ford Ranger and Everest account for 90 percent of the vehicles it sells in Australia at the moment, and EVs made up less than one percent of its deliveries through the first half of 2024.
“I think that’s a watch-and-see situation,” a Ford Australia spokesperson said. “We feel like we’re pretty well placed as [NVES] comes in next year. We’ve obviously got the range of plug-in hybrids [Ranger PHEV] coming to Australia. We’ve got the Mustang Mach-E here in Australia, [in our] commercial vehicle lineups, we’ve got E-Transit and E-Transit Custom [electric vans]. So we are feeling pretty confident about the lineup we have. We’ve obviously got a very keen eye on the future and what the product lineup looks like long term, but I think we’re going to have the right mix and as time goes on that will change and evolve to meet whatever regulatory environment that exists.”
While Ford has historically supported NVES – which could be revised before it’s implemented next year – the automaker has also been quite vocal about its feelings regarding fuel economy standards. FoMoCo believes that the key to reaching those goals isn’t by levying penalties on automakers, but rather, offering more incentives for EVs and PHEVs, which will instead encourage those companies to develop more EVs and plug-in hybrids instead of penalizing consumers with higher prices to offset those penalties.
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