Parklands chop won’t stop despite petition triggering parliamentary inquiry
Acting Premier Kyam Maher says works for the golf course redevelopment and MotoGP will continue despite a petition attracting 13,500 signatures.
‘Garbage guts’ tree frog catches and eats sunbird
A Townsville gardener was watering her garden when she witnessed a white-lipped tree frog catch a sunbird mid-flight.
20 years ago, China bet big on electric vehicles. Now Western carmakers are feeling the pain
In Germany, Japan and the United States, famous carmakers are in trouble. One reason is intense competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers – and growing public demand for EVs. The automakers who dominated the 20th century have largely failed to shift to electric.
Volkswagen was once the biggest carmaker in China. Now it only has a bit part. In June, it announced plans to cut 100,000 jobs worldwide. “We have no chance against this,” admitted Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe after visiting a high-tech EV factory in Shanghai. Months earlier, Ford CEO Jim Farley warned Western carmakers were “in a fight for our lives”.
In 2025, Chinese factories produced almost 75% of the world’s EVs. As more and more drivers go electric, esteemed brands and luxury carmakers have been forced to close factories and scramble to stay relevant. The global shift to EVs has accelerated amid the US-Iran conflict.
China’s rise wasn’t a given. It was a gamble. But it is now paying off – and legacy automakers are struggling to cope.
Sudden success, decades in the making
In 1949, the Communists won the Chinese civil war. That same year, the new People’s Republic of China established its first car factory to reduce reliance on imports and develop manufacturing strength.
In the late 1970s, leader Deng Xiaoping began opening China to outside investment – including the car industry. During the 1980s and 1990s, local automakers partnered with foreign carmakers to manufacture their cars in Chinese factories. This gave Chinese automakers access to the technological know-how of experienced foreign firms.
Despite this, the Chinese industry remained relatively small, its market dominated by European and Japanese cars. Western carmakers were focused on the threat from giant Japanese carmakers such as Toyota. China wasn’t on the radar.
By the early 2000s, China’s car industry was producing cars for its huge domestic market. But exports were tiny, as foreign carmakers dominated production of internal combustion engine cars. Chinese policymakers realised they couldn’t compete on this turf.
What about hybrids? No chance – Japanese manufacturers were far ahead with models such as the Prius.
The only solution was to focus on new technologies.
Electric vehicles were almost nonexistent in the early 2000s. Tesla would only release its first EV in 2008. But China’s leaders bet heavily on an electric future, investing in the industry and making ambitious plans to encourage existing carmakers and startups.
If successful, electric vehicles would cut China’s heavy dependence on imported oil and curb the severe air pollution that drew world attention during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Success was not guaranteed
In the early 20th century, EVs outsold combustion engine cars. But battery technology wasn’t good enough.
From the 1960s onwards, US automaker General Motors repeatedly tried to develop EV models only to shelve them due to internal pressures, external scepticism and a lack of charging infrastructure.
The most famous was the EV1, briefly available during the late 1990s. Production ended in 2003.
That same year, Chinese leaders announced EVs would be a priority in the country’s new Five-Year Plan, focusing on batteries and other technologies.
Between 2009 and 2022, Chinese authorities handed out over A$41 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to develop electric cars, taxis and buses.
While some companies failed or were bought out, others succeeded. The world’s biggest manufacturer of EV batteries, CATL, began life as a battery manufacturer for consumer electronics. BYD had similar beginnings before moving into combustion engine cars and then EVs. It’s now the world’s largest EV manufacturer. Subsidies and growing demand turned both companies into giants.
Intense competition drove innovation, but also led to price wars and a “brutal” domestic market. This increased the importance of exports.
Why didn’t other carmakers follow suit?
Established Western carmakers operate in a different context.
Changing political cycles mean there’s less certainty about government backing. Their typically older consumer base is more attached to combustion engines. Experimental EV models were never given the backing to scale up. The biggest Western EV manufacturer is Tesla, which began as a startup rather than a large, slow-moving conglomerate.
As they fell behind, legacy carmakers had less state support and answered to short-term profit cycles. They faced bigger supplier and dealer networks – and more powerful unions. These constituencies were unconvinced by EVs, which took 30% less labor.
Even now, Japanese automaker CEOs remain ambivalent about EVs. Last month, Toyota chairman Aiko Toyoda admitted EVs were his “biggest fear”. “I love engines,” he said. For Toyoda and other leaders, there’s a strong tendency to try to keep things as they were. But that is becoming impossible.
The gamble paid off
In China’s cities, roads are almost free of engine noise. Air quality is improving and oil imports are dropping.
China’s automakers have come of age. After exporting few cars 20 years ago, China is now the world’s largest exporter. That threshold was passed in 2023, when exports of almost 5 million cars to over 180 countries saw China overtake Japan.
The pace is dizzying. After launching in Australia in 2022, BYD is now Australia’s second-biggest car brand. Last month founder Wang Chuanfu predicted BYD would overtake Toyota within five years.
For other automakers, Chinese success is a bitter pill to swallow. Larger brands seem best positioned to compete. US legacy automakers may retreat behind tariff walls. But some will not survive.
Timothy Minchin receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Michelle Shu Wun Kuek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Australians brace for higher fuel prices as US-Iran conflict resumes (again)
Iran and the United States have ended their fragile peace agreement, signed only a month ago, with the exchange of missile fire.
Once again, this halts the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz and puts major oil importers like Australia on tenterhooks. And this time could be worse than before.
Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian refineries have forced Russia to halt its diesel exports, causing the price of diesel to soar.
The combination of these two events will tighten supplies of diesel. Australia is the world’s largest importer of diesel, which we use to power long-range freight, mining and agriculture.
Cost of shipping oil to rise
This resumption of hostilities appears to be a battle over the control of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has fired missiles at ships navigating the strategic waterway near Oman’s coast, instead of through Iran’s preferred channel near its own coast, where it can collect a shipping fee.
The US has responded by proposing a 20% fee on the value of cargo for each ship passing through the strait.
For an oil tanker such as a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) carrying two million barrels of oil at US$80(A$115) a barrel, or US$160(A$230) million in value – that equates to a fee of US$32(A$46) million payable to the US. This cost would likely be passed onto consumers.
Diesel facing tighter squeeze
The outbreak of the Iran and US-Israel conflict in February heavily affected diesel supplies. In early April, benchmark diesel prices in Asia hit a record level of more than US$232(A$334) a barrel, more than double the global oil price of around US$110($A158) a barrel at the time.
The combination of a closed strait and a dearth of Russian diesel will trigger further volatility. Singapore Gasoil, the primary price benchmark across the Asia-Pacific, was up almost 6% at US$131 (A$188) per barrel on Tuesday.
A tighter global diesel market has concerning implications for Australia, the world’s largest importer of diesel. Although we are not the world’s largest consumer of diesel, the closure of around three-quarters of our refining capacity in the 20 years to 2021, has left Australia dependent on imports for 80% of its oil product consumption.
The absence of Russian diesel does not affect Australia directly as it has sanctions on Russian energy, like many countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). But countries such as Turkey, China, Brazil and Singapore are buyers of Russian oil products. These countries will now be competing with Australia for diesel in a tighter market.
Depleted global reserves
In addition, US strategic oil reserves are at their lowest levels since 1983 after it contributed to the International Energy Agency (IEA)‘s stock release of 400 million barrel to global markets. A repeat of a release on this scale is no longer an option.
So far, Australia has been relatively successful in sourcing diesel, petrol and jet fuel from other partners. There have only been sporadic shortages, with queuing at petrol stations limited to the early days of the conflict.
However, Australia still has relatively thin oil stockpiles. We are at 50 days of net imports, the same as it was at the end of December. This is well below the 90-day level required for members of the IEA.
Even on the federal government’s preferred metric of the Minimum Stockholding Obligation (MSO), which tracks storage levels of diesel, petrol and jet fuel, actual volumes have declined. But the government prefers to focus on another metric called “consumption cover days”: the number of days domestic fuel supplies would last at normal daily consumption rates. This has actually risen, which suggests Australians are using less fuel.
The latest official data from the Australian Petroleum Statistics (APS) on consumption show petrol, jet fuel and diesel consumption have each dropped(8.2%, 6.6% and 2.1% respectively) in the month of April, compared with last year.
What about consumers?
The longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Russian diesel exports are offline, the more likely it is Australian motorists will again feel increasing pain at the fuel pump.
The promise of a long-term solution to this conflict remains only a distant goal, with both sides showing a willingness to battle over the Hormuz Strait.
The present uncertainty is exacerbated by the US failing to have any long-term strategy plan when it embarked on its missile attacks on Iran with Israel. However, Iran’s ecomomy is weakening given its reliance on oil exports, which have declined to a trickle. They are not in a strong position to maintain a long conflict.
Both the US and Israel face important elections before the end of the year that could lead to both countries changing their approach.
Kevin Morrison works as an energy analyst for the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis
Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating
Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.
Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).