MTA July 2023 SA

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MTA’s Darrell Jacobs, Premier Climate Council Member
Daniel Conley and RAA’s Nick Reade.
MTA General
Manager of Media,
Marketing and Policy
Kaes Cillessen with
CEO Darrell Jacobs.
MTA Plays Leading Role at
Climate Change Conference
In April the South Australian
Government held its inaugural SA
Industry Climate Change Conference
and the MTA contributed to the event
by providing its expert insights as
Australia makes strides to reduce its
emissions.
Automotive is amidst a revolutionary
turning point representing some of
the most significant innovations to
mobility and transport seen in living
memory.
CEO Darrell Jacobs presented the
MTA’s vision as South Australia
decarbonises its vehicle fleet and
becomes more energy efficient. He
was joined by RAA CEO Nick Reade
for a panel titled ‘The Future of
Transport’ at the Adelaide Convention
Centre.
The event was held a number of
days after the Federal Government
released its anticipated National
Electric Vehicle Strategy. The
central pillar of the strategy is a
fuel efficiency standard.
“Without a fuel efficiency standard
manufacturers have been prioritising
other markets which penalise car
brands for not meeting emissions
benchmarks,” Darrell commented
at the conference.
“We are also pleased that the
government has listened to our
calls and not banned the sale of
petrol and diesel vehicles.
“There is a recognition – whether it’s
hydrogen, plug-in hybrid and hybrid or
even more efficient fuels – everything
has a role to play in the transition.”
Darrell also provided context about
the timeline of electric vehicle uptake.
“I’ve got three numbers I want to
share with you,” he told the audience.
“There are 20 million cars on the
road today, there are one million new
cars sold every year in Australia and
electric vehicles are six per cent of
these new sales.
“So if even if we hypothetically sold
100 per cent electric vehicles each
year and we have 20 million cars on
the road it is still going to take a little
bit of time for EV penetration.”
Amid the discussion, Darrell said
automotive had the ability to develop
the pipeline of future technicians.
“One of the challenges we all have
in our business is skills and there
is a huge skills shortage through
automotive,” he said.
“We need to work with schools where
you can change the paradigm from
grease and spanners to technology,
scanning tools and computers.
“I think the automotive industry has
a real opportunity to change that
thinking and attract a whole new
range of people in our industry to
work on really exciting cars.”
The MTA’s contribution in front of
industry leaders, businesses and
decision-makers was well received
and helped cap off the conference’s
first day of proceedings. More than
800 guests attended the inaugural
event over its two days.
Darrell Jacobs
presenting at
the Climate
Conference.
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