Last Update on : March 10, 2008
Green fund to lure innovative car makers
 The government is pushing hard to attract manufacturing investment into Australia. Industry Minister Kim Carr last week travelled to Japan and Europe to talk with automotive, chemical and engineering companies in a bid to boost the profile of manufacturing following local car plant closures.
The government has been courting Toyota to produce petrol-electric hybrids cars from its factory in Melbourne. Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks will chair a review of financial assistance and tariff protection for the struggling car industry and will report by July.
Senator Carr is trying to use Labor's $500 million green car fund - which starts in 2011 - and the promise of government car fleet purchases to secure local production of hybrid vehicles and lure investment dollars for other green technology.
Labor has revealed little about the operation of the green car fund, but Senator Carr told The Australian Financial Review that it would be a co-investment scheme between the private sector and the government.
On his visit overseas Senator Carr met some 40 companies including Toyota and European firms Bosch, the BASF Group, Conergy solar power, Daimler, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, EDAG and GP Solar.
"We've got an automotive review coming forward from Steve Bracks and we're drawing attention to that review and seeking submissions from international companies and we're asking these companies to consider that we will have a [green] fund available which will be on a partnership of three [dollars] to one," Senator Carr said.
"We're seeking co-investment arrangements; we want to talk to companies about ways in which we can transform the automotive industry to produce green cars."
Senator Carr said the principle of the green car fund would be that the government would contribute one dollar of investment for every three dollars of private investment.
"But we've yet to determine how the nuts and bolts of this will work and that's one of the issues that the review will be looking at," he said.
The response from companies had been "extremely good".
Senator Carr revealed that apart from systems like hybrid technologies, component "drive chain" manufacturers would also be eligible to apply.
"There are a number of factors that affect fuel economy, so we're not being prescriptive about the forms of technology," said Senator Carr. "This is an industry which has a prosperous future if the right decisions are made now. We have this enormous technological pool of expertise that we aren't drawing on adequately at the moment."
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