Australian Financial Institutions Join the rEVolution
In media releases this week, Pepper Money and Bank Australia announced that they would be putting their financial weight behind the rEVolution — the switch from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles.
Pepper Money announced 12 months of free charging for those drivers taking out a loan to buy an electric car. Pepper has gone into partnership with Evie Networks, which will provide the charging.
“We want to help accelerate the switch to EVs by removing the barriers and contribute to lasting, systematic change — from finance to infrastructure and beyond,” said Pepper Money general manager of asset finance Ken Spallacy.
Meanwhile, Bank Australia has announced that it will no longer issue loans for the purchase of fossil fueled cars. From 2025 the bank will stop lending money to buy fossil fuel vehicles: Sasha Courville, the bank’s chief impact officer, is quoted as saying that the bank did not want to lock its 185,00 customers “into higher carbon emissions and increasingly expensive running costs.” This announcement should send a message that “if you’re considering buying a new car you should think seriously about an electric vehicle, both for its impact on the climate and for its lifetime cost savings.”
Australia is awash with announcements promoting the uptake of EVs and the accelerated transition to renewable energy. The mainstream media is starting to take notice and the public is getting more and more accurate and positive news about the situation. It helps that Audi is taking out full page ads in Rupert Murdoch’s flagship newspaper The Australian to promote electric Audi models — specifically, the e-tron — with the caption “Accelerate Progress.”
There will be some who will naysay and moan — these are two small financial institutions, what about the big four? It remains to be seen as to whether the two Davids in this fight can influence the Goliaths of Wespac, ANZ, Commonwealth, and NAB. But, who knows, market share is market share.
Just as global finance pivots away from coal, hopefully we will see more Australian financial institutions join the rEVolution, giving incentives for EV purchase.
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