"Australians have paid $4 billion extra for fuel in the past seven years as action on vehicle efficiency stalled and have been warned costs will accelerate without new standards.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told a business audience on Thursday to get behind the new vehicle efficiency standards that will force the car industry to import more efficient models.
Australia's top-selling car maker Toyota is leading a pushback on the new rules set to take effect in 2025, saying few models sold here meet the standard - a point advocates have been making for years.
With more than 85 per cent of the world's car market already covered by efficiency standards, Australia is missing out on the cleanest, cheapest-to-run cars, according to the independent Climate Council.
Effective standards would stop Australia from being a "car park for clunkers" and could unlock more models of electric vehicles for households and businesses.
"The fact that it incentivises car brands to change the cars they make and sell in coming years is a feature - not a bug - of this policy," Climate Council head of advocacy Jennifer Rayner told AAP.
"Car brands are asking for more time to keep doing harm with their high-polluting cars, but we can't afford to wait," Dr Rayner said.
EV consultant Bryce Gaton said Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia were happy for Australians to finally join the list of major markets that received their best new cars.
"But laggards like Toyota are trying to stop Aussies from getting this access - they don’t want to give up the profit they're making off dumping Australians with their most expensive, polluting vehicles," he said.
The former coalition government proposed vehicle efficiency standards, saying they would cut petrol bills, but parked the policy amid party ructions after consultations with industry ended seven years ago.
"We supported them from opposition, but they couldn't get it past the climate-denying right-wing of their own party," Mr Bowen said.
"Australians have since wasted around $4 billion unnecessarily on fuel," he told the Smart Energy 2024 expo.
The fuel bill was ticking higher, but Labor's preferred model of standards was forecast to save motorists $12 billion in fuel costs by 2030 and $108 billion by 2050, he said.
Mr Bowen also announced a $76 million funding package for electric vehicle (EV) projects.
The package includes $4 million to help rental giant Europcar add 3100 EVs to its Australian fleet that would later be sold on to boost the used car market.
Europcar is also partnering with Ampol to install 256 chargers across more than 40 hire car sites in cities and towns and at airports.
Australia's green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, will invest $50 million with Angle Auto Finance to get 20,000 new EVs on the road in the next two years.
In an Australian first for ports, Patrick Terminals in Fremantle will deploy nine electric terminal trucks and fast-charging to replace eight diesel vehicles.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's plan to have nuclear reactors replace coal-fired power plants has come under fire.
"Nuclear options for the Australian grid won't be viable until the 2040s at the earliest," Smart Energy Council chief executive John Grimes said.
Mr Bowen said nuclear energy was "uneconomic" and the federal government had no intention of lifting Australia's ban.
