Submission to National Electric Vehicle Strategy consultation paper

At IAG, we have been monitoring and learning about electric vehicles by insuring them as long as they have been on our roads. We have also been adding EVs to our corporate fleet. We are proud that our customers can insure any vehicle on the market in Australia through one of our brands. In addition to learning by insuring, we have been conducting research and testing of electric vehicles to understand how they may be different to insure or repair through our IAG Research Centre7 and our innovation collective Firemark - Futures, Ventures and Labs8. We welcome an increase in demand for electric vehicle insurance and are ready to provide that insurance to keep people safe and protected from financial risk on the road.

We strongly support this Electric Vehicle Strategy and the Government for recognising the importance of incentives and strategies to increase the uptake of electric vehicles and reduce our transport emissions. We believe the Government and the private sector need to work together to reduce barriers to electric vehicle uptake. We agree with many of EV9 experts that the main barriers to improving uptake are:

• Availability and affordability of these vehicles; and
• A need for rapid increase in charging/fuelling infrastructure.