In a bold move echoing Tesla’s recent decision, Polestar, the renowned Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer, has announced its departure from a prominent auto industry lobby. This withdrawal reflects growing discontent with the lobby’s opposition to a crucial proposed vehicle efficiency standard, seen as pivotal for environmental progress.
The proposed standard aims to elevate vehicle efficiency benchmarks, crucial for reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change. However, the lobby’s vigorous campaign against it has drawn criticism from eco-conscious automakers like Polestar and Tesla, who view such regulations as imperative for sustainable development.
Didn’t polestar just only release their first electric car in the past year or two? This whole thing is fucking nonsense.
The consumer vehicle side of Polestar has always been exclusively electric, and was launched 7 years ago with the Polestar 1
I guess the market for race tuned Volvos was drying up ;-)
Polestar is not Swedish. Its China owned
Am I correct in my understanding that:
- governments are working on a new standard for cars, to improve their safety/efficiency
- the lobby opposes the new standard
- so some manufacturers are leaving that lobby because they don’t want to oppose the regulation
I’m curious which manufacturers would want to oppose the regulations, since pretty much all of them are planning on a full electric future
I’m not sure why the article doesn’t mention this anywhere, but the legislation is concerning Australia, which currently has zero fuel efficiency standards.
Because of the lack of a standard, Australia is currently a dumping ground for inefficient trash that other countries won’t take, and ICE car companies don’t want to lose that. Electric vehicle makers prefer the regulation because it puts them on a more equal footing.
Yes, many of these ICE companies are transitioning away from fossil fuels, but they are being dragged kicking and screaming, and any delay in legislation means they can continue to profit from these outdated cars a bit longer while they catch up on electric cars. Pretty much the same type of delay tactics that the fossil fuel industry is pushing across the board.
Here’s a better article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/08/polestar-quits-australian-auto-lobby-fcai-vehicle-efficiency-standards
Pretty much this but another point of difference with say the US is that (Utes) (trucks) in Australia would be classified as “cars” and not commercial vehicles. Which is why you can see so many giant fuck off trucks in the US, they’re not part of the legislation … loopholes. Currently they want Government to have the same loophole as the US, so Toyota -> Hilux Ford -> Ranger etc can keep bringing in their big sellers with no penalty,
I read that as Pornstar and wasnt even surprised
It’s almost like Lobbying is bad
If I get down voted for this commenting against the grain, so be it, but here goes:
I believe that the reason the car companies oppose this is the speed at which it’s being pushed. Not that the regulations need to happen.
My understanding is that it takes a car company 3+ years to design / engineer a vehicle to meet the market standards and regulations. It’s not an overnight process. So the car companies want this to be delayed to give them time to be in market with vehicles that comply with the new regulations.
Every other country already has similar standards, though. So they don’t need to design anything new, they can just actually start selling those cars in Australia instead of their obsolete junk that can’t be sold anywhere else.
Yeah you’re right, but that’s 100% on them. They knew it was coming and they chose to not make any significant changes. Now they die. That’s just evolution.
If only we knew higher efficiency improvement standards have been enacted almost consistently since 1975!
