Rebuilding Vehicle Manufacturing in Australia: Industrial Opportunities for South Australia in an Electrified Future
The UFX asked Mark Dean, Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow, Carmichael Centre at the Centre for Future Work within The Australia Institute how well placed is South Australia to realise this opportunity and what policies, incentives and behaviours should South Australia consider to make this happen?
Australia possesses many of the key elements to develop an electric vehicle manufacturing industry: rich mineral reserves essential for the production of lithium-ion batteries; an advanced industrial base that still employs more than 30,000 vehicle manufacturing workers; a highly skilled workforce with decades of experience in automotive manufacturing; and consumer interest in EV transport and ownership that has grown rapidly in recent years from a low baseline. What Australia lacks is an active industrial policy for manufacturing that could coordinate these elements and create a major industry at the centre of a sustainable, renewables-focused advanced industrial economy.
There are significant opportunities for South Australia’s urban centres to benefit from such a national EV-focused industrial transformation. Existing capital infrastructure remains largely intact in Elizabeth and vehicle component manufacturers throughout the state continue to export their products. Whyalla’s steel mill is undergoing a green manufacturing-driven revival. Advanced industrial firms at Tonsley and Lonsdale are leading the nation in advanced manufacturing technologies, green energy production and circular economy practices. Port Pirie could become a hub for critical materials processing. Were these advantages paired with SA’s nation-leading battery storage facilities, the state could very well be placed on a stable path to powering new manufacturing initiatives with renewable energy.
With its growing role in advanced manufacturing renewable energy, South Australia faces opportunities to demonstrate its globally competitive expertise as a hub of ‘applied renewable energy solutions’. This could mean identifying opportunities for manufacturing excellence, sustainability knowledge, renewable energy technology and sustainable infrastructure projects from housing to public transport – showing the world how Adelaide and SA rethink social and economic policy and export that knowledge and expertise to the world.
EV ownership subsidies, charging infrastructure provision and other consumer incentives are policies that can encourage EV uptake amongst South Australians. But subsidies for skilling in renewable industries through TAFE, aiding businesses to acquire capital investments in new technologies for production, commitments to greening energy, encouraging public transport patronage, and incentivising walking and cycling with infrastructure provision are all critical to ensuring that EVs are not held up as the only means by which we address climate change. EVs are not by themselves the solution to the climate crisis. An EV industry should form a major pillar of a much-needed transformation in manufacturing, but we must also rethink how we develop our urban communities by redesigning social and economic systems around climate-friendly policies beyond industry.
No advanced industrial country achieves these goals without the active role of government. The private sector alone will not deliver on these goals because it is driven by profit – but it can be encouraged by a supportive government that here is a good business case in the thousands of jobs and the knowledge intensive products and services that can emerge from a long-term vision and a realistic roadmap to achieve it. Hence, Australia needs a new nation-building vision with an EV manufacturing industry at its centre. This can potentially create positive transformations in all elements of our economy and society. But what is needed is an active federal government industry policy – and an SA government that knows it must participate as a major player – to ensure that our future is productive because it is sustainable.
Mark Dean Carmichael Centre at the Centre for Future Work within The Australia Institute. Read the full report.
