Green Loans to jolt electric car market

Loans.com.au has moved to supercharge the Australian market for fuel efficient and electric vehicles by offering a sharply lower car loan interest rate for green car buyers.

Loans.com.au has teamed up with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to offer the discount of 0.7 per cent for qualifying green vehicles.

Managing Director Marie Mortimer said the preferential rate was well timed to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles such as the Tesla 3, Nissan LEAF, BMW i3, Hyundai IONIQ and others that were flooding into the Australian market this year.

“Electric cars help the environment and are increasingly convenient to use but their weak point has been their price,” Ms Mortimer said.

“Our sharply discounted green car loans will help to make them less expensive so more people can afford them.”

When the eagerly-awaited Tesla 3 and 2018 Nissan Leaf electric cars arrive here this year, they are expected to cost around $50,000 each.

Taking advantage of a loans.com.au Green Car discount, a buyer will pay almost $1000 less in interest over the five year term of the loan, than the buyer of a regular car.

As well as electric and hybrid vehicles - which all qualify for the green loan discount - many low-emissions petrol vehicles are also on the list.

To qualify as a green car, a vehicle needs to have significantly lower than average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when compared to other cars of its size.

Cars on the approved list include a Who’s Who of European and Japanese car makers with more than 50 highly-sought-after petrol and diesel vehicles.

Some examples of cars which fit this criteria are certain models of Mazda 2, Ford Fiesta, Honda Jazz, Volkswagen Golf and vehicles from Mercedes, Audi and BMW.