Critics of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Future Fuels program say the scheme will do little to drive down emissions and increase demand for electric vehicles.

The federal government’s strategy hopes to see at least 1.7 million electric vehicles hit the road by 2030.

However, the Australia Institute's Richie Merzian says the plan lacks actual policy incentives to encourage the manufacture and acquisition of electric cars.

“We’ve been waiting for an electric vehicle strategy, but it delivers very little in terms of actual, credible policies that we know work overseas here in the UK, in particular,” Mr Merzian told Sky News Australia.

“In Europe, what’s quite popular is there’s actual incentives for electric vehicles that bring down the sticker price, there’s actual mandates for manufacturers to have a set amount of emissions across their entire fleet which means they’re encouraged to manufacture and bring more of their more lower emissions vehicles to market.

“Unfortunately, Australians are missing out on cars that are cheaper to maintain, cheaper to fuel, better for the climate because the government doesn’t have those policies in place.

“It’s not rocket science: if you want affordable electric vehicles, if you want to bring down transport emissions, then you need credible policies and that’s what we’re missing, and this plan doesn’t deliver it.”

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