Electric Vehicles

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:44): I rise to speak about the possibility of electric vehicle production returning vehicle manufacturing to South Australia. Senator Rex Patrick's strong advocacy was instrumental in ACE Electric Vehicles Group securing a $5 million grant in the 2020-21 federal budget for (1) a South Australian advanced manufacturing facility to facilitate manufacturing and assembly of electric vehicles and (2) a bidirectional vehicle-to-grid trial to examine the concept and operation of systems which support solar home charging, grid services and virtual storage infrastructure.

I understand that stage 1 of the ACE EV Group project planning is underway with this $5 million grant. The bidirectional vehicle to grid will not only support energy trading opportunities that lower home energy costs and vehicle running costs but the virtual power plants and the multiuse of the EV batteries can contribute to grid resilience, home energy security during blackouts and mobile energy management as a direct power source for tools and other off-grid applications.

Parliament needs to be careful that these opportunities are not killed off in reviewing legislation that allows disconnection of small users from the grid in the name of grid management. Rather than following a path dictated by major market operators and generators, the grid needs to be designed and developed to allow for the viable financial development of these local options.

South Australia is in the box position, because of the high level of rooftop solar and renewables, to do the forward supportive thinking for grid management when it comes to encouraging EVs as virtual power plants and indeed the use of these economics to encourage transition to EVs. Just as easily, a lazy grid management strategy could be rolled out that disincentivises the concept of local virtual power plants by not rewarding their use.

I would argue that the development of a grid management system that encourages virtual power plants is more important for EV take-up than sterile discussions about NSW and Victoria models, the disincentive of road user charges and the positive effects of direct payments to the financially privileged to take up EVs, paid for by those who cannot afford the new technology at this stage. The ACE EV Group particularly point to the importance of mobility electrification and mobile energy, noting that it will be transformative in our society, spawning new industries, and drawing an analogy with mobile phones.

The next stages planned by ACE EV Group is the location of their head office and locating and establishing a manufacturing hub. The ACE EV Group indicate the benefits from their forward plans to be in the order of 1,400 jobs by 2025, with a further 12,000 indirect jobs, and the production of 55,000 units and 64,000 battery storage modules, with 70 per cent for export and 30 per cent for domestic fleet markets, generating $1.37 billion revenue. Overseas partners of ACE EV have already built two plants, so the Australian plant would be the third. The manufacturing process uses moulds, plastic, carbon fibre and gluing.

The ACE electric vehicles are a light utility vehicle with limited competition from the major vehicle makers converting from traditional petrol vehicles. Other players out of China and India tend to produce low quality product, lacking the sophisticated engineering and technology of ACE. I am not in a position to check and evaluate the veracity of the ACE EV Group project claims, but the company has obtained funding from the federal government.

I am concerned about the extent to which the South Australian government has determined its position and assisted the company over the last several months. I have been in contact with the company since 20 August this year, asked questions of several ministers and tried to find out what the government is doing. I am concerned that there has been uncoordinated and inconsistent follow-up that will result in a potential project of real significance being lost to South Australia.