Picture it: a gleaming Tesla Model Y glides through Sydney's leafy east, its woke driver basking in the glow of a $12,000 Fringe Benefits Tax break. Out west, a tradie fills up his battered ute and, via his taxes, pays for that joyride.
If electric vehicles are truly the planet-saving technology their boosters claim, why are we shovelling half a billion dollars a year in federal subsidies at them? Why the stamp-duty waivers, rego discounts and luxury-car-tax concessions showered mainly on the professional classes?
Economist Leith van Onselen calls it what it is: an admission that EVs cannot compete on a level playing field. And the numbers back him up.
The Subsidy Buffet
Federal: $500 million a year in FBT exemptions for EV leases under $91,387. Add a higher luxury-car-tax threshold, zero import tariffs and an implicit fuel-excise free-ride worth tens of millions.
States: Queensland's $6k rebate, WA's $3.5k, South Australia's $3k (now closed), ACT stamp-duty waivers and assorted rego discounts.
These perks overwhelmingly benefit inner-city salary-packagers and fleet buyers, people who would probably buy an EV anyway. Harvard research on US subsidies shows the same pattern: the affluent cash in, while everyone else foots the bill.
The Market Isn't Buying It
Even with the handouts, Australian EV sales fell 7.9 % in 2024-25 to 87,533 vehicles, just 7.4 % market share. Q1 2025 hit a two-year low. A brief Q2 rebound only came after yet more policy carrots and the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard's regulatory stick.
If a product needs endless taxpayer bribes to move off the lot, that's not a revolution. It's life support.
Green Halo, Dirty Reality
Subsidy apologists mumble about climate. But the environmental ledger is messy:
Mining for lithium and rare earths ravages landscapes and guzzles water.
Grid strain grows as fast-charging spreads.
Globally, subsidies have spawned fraud, from China's ghost-fleet scandals to U.S. estimates of $32,000 in subsidies per extra EV sold.
Yes, EVs have lower tailpipe emissions. But you could slash far more CO₂ by investing those billions in public transport, battery recycling or targeted low-income energy efficiency. If you accept the climate change scam in the first place, which I believe you should not.
A Rort by Any Other Name
This is classic middle-class welfare disguised as green virtue. Debt is soaring, hospitals are under strain, roads are pot-holed, and Canberra is effectively buying Teslas for lawyers in Sydney's Palm Beach.
Call it what it is: a green rort. A scam.
When EVs are genuinely cheaper and better, they won't need our money. Until then, the only thing these subsidies electrify is the taxpayer's outrage.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/09/australia-must-slash-international-student-numbers/