Speaker 1: But with this deteriorating tension in the Middle East, do
Speaker 1: we need to prepare ourselves for cost pressures at the bowser?
Speaker 1: Is the price of petrol about to go up significantly?
Speaker 1: Stephen Moyer is the CEO of the Motor Trades Association
Speaker 1: here in Wa and he joins me live on six
Speaker 1: pr right now today, Stephen.
Speaker 2: Gaoli could hurt more than a be en apple punch.
Speaker 1: Couldn't it the way that we've sent that tension in
Speaker 1: the Middle East, because we're not going to have as
Speaker 1: much oil now produced and available globally? Stephen, is that
Speaker 1: the reading that you have of what's happening over there
Speaker 1: in Iran?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the tip is that Iran's going to block
Speaker 2: off straight that supplies about twenty five percent of the
Speaker 2: world's oil. That's going to have a flow on There's
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. So I think we need to
Speaker 2: brace ourselves. We've had a very nice period of low
Speaker 2: petrol pricing, so I think we can brace our salts
Speaker 2: through something close to two dollars the way it's going, and.
Speaker 1: When we get to the top of that cycle, it's
Speaker 1: always a Wednesday, so we're not far away from that.
Speaker 1: Stephen could it move as quickly as this week.
Speaker 2: Look, I would be really cynical for anyone to put
Speaker 2: their prices up off the back of that. There's a
Speaker 2: two week supply lag, so you would expect retailers to
Speaker 2: do the right thing and keep those prices as they
Speaker 2: bought them at wholesale. I think what consumers should do
Speaker 2: is jump onto the US train issue to petroleum. You
Speaker 2: can pick up there the wholesale price every day, and
Speaker 2: then you can make an informed decision as to who's
Speaker 2: giving you a fair deal and who's actually ripping you off.
Speaker 1: Because it went up about thirty bucks today. Oiled in
Speaker 1: it at the start of trade, and I don't know
Speaker 1: where we ended, but it just feels as though it's coming.
Speaker 1: And we haven't had had this conversation for a little while, Stephen.
Speaker 2: It's been a while, and it's been lovely actually not
Speaker 2: to have to talk about high fuel prices. But I
Speaker 2: think we're back in there. And of course that always
Speaker 2: leads on to the old subject of evs and you know,
Speaker 2: should I go out and buy myself an electric vehicle
Speaker 2: to avoid the cost?
Speaker 1: Well, it's good timing you say that, because new research
Speaker 1: that's just come out from the Micar Mobility Index shows
Speaker 1: there's a growing wave of caution amongst dozzies when it
Speaker 1: comes to evs at hybrids. Just one in four ICE
Speaker 1: drivers planning to now make the switch, a twelve percentage
Speaker 1: point drop since twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Stephen, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I think consumers are voting with their feet. Hybrid technology
Speaker 2: is the way to go. That's when a lot of
Speaker 2: people who want to be responsible with their fuel are
Speaker 2: pushing and evs. There's a number of problems only with
Speaker 2: the EV market right now, and it's not what a
Speaker 2: lot of people suggest is infrastructure. It's actually other terms
Speaker 2: like what is this car going to work in three
Speaker 2: to five years time? The resale value. That's a real
Speaker 2: concern when you're a laying out between fifty and whatever
Speaker 2: top of the line you want to go to, and
Speaker 2: that car's dropping forty sixty percent every year in value,
Speaker 2: So that's a big problem. The range is still and
Speaker 2: then is a problem. I mean, you know, is it
Speaker 2: viable to say that I can do a weekend away
Speaker 2: without in stress? People are still very concerned about that.
Speaker 2: And then of course there is the price, and most
Speaker 2: of the good offerings are still north of fifty thousand,
Speaker 2: which is ten thousand above what the average family spend
Speaker 2: on a new car.
Speaker 1: And we had the subsidy end, didn't we only a
Speaker 1: couple of months ago, particularly for those who are trying
Speaker 1: to buy themselves a hybrid vehicle. Stephen, do you think
Speaker 1: that may have all of a sudden had people looking
Speaker 1: at the price of these things and thinking, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: not yet, it's just going to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more expensive.
Speaker 2: No. Absolutely, it's got a correlation. We saw this with
Speaker 2: LPG Olie when there were subsidies in there for LPG,
Speaker 2: people were going crazy for him. As soon as the
Speaker 2: governments withdrew the subsidies, LPG industry wound up very very quickly.
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be the same with hybrid
Speaker 2: and EV technology. If government's not prepared to put in
Speaker 2: some serious incentives, people just will stay with the ice conversion.
Speaker 1: And maybe they will bring back the incentives. If we say,
Speaker 1: crystal ball that two dollars alter price mark now for
Speaker 1: petrol going forward, Stephen, whatever happens over the coming weeks
Speaker 1: with the tension in the Middle East, then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, hybrids and yes, evs might come back into
Speaker 1: the conversation for Australian motorists.
Speaker 2: But people still need to make that assessment. Olio is
Speaker 2: to okay the premium mine that I'm paying get myself
Speaker 2: into an electric vehicle. Will I make that up in
Speaker 2: savings on petrol? You know the average family spends around
Speaker 2: two and a half thousand dollars a year on petrol.
Speaker 2: You know the cost of an EV is considerably higher
Speaker 2: than the conventional car of the same level.
Speaker 1: Good on this, Stephen, thankes few time as always.
Speaker 2: Good on you. Excuse me,