The minor party wants to phase them out while spurring the take-up of electric vehicles.

Greens transport spokeswoman Janet Rice said the plan was similar to measures announced overseas, but Parkes MP Mark Coulton rejected the call.

He saw a “place for electric cars” but doubted if it was in vast areas of western NSW.

“Obviously people like the idea of having vehicles with lower emissions, but there’s horses for courses,” he said.

“I can’t imagine that any time soon we’ll have a car that handles the distances that people do out in this area.”

Mr Coulton predicted in Dubbo there could “be an opportunity” and recalled previous mayor Mathew Dickerson had an electric car “and worked it quite successfully”.

The MP opposed “artificially creating” an economic environment to achieve any phaseout.

“There was some talk of subsidising electric cars and some of those are quite expensive and I think that would be middle class welfare because... the higher income people from the cities would get a subsidy at the expense of people in the bush,” he said. 

“I think they’ll have a place, but I think we’re a long way from seeing them replace all cars… time may change things, but I think we’re a long way from an electric tractor, or an electric road train.”

Mr Coulton argued electric cars had their own environmental impact as well.

There was an amount of energy required to generate an electric car to create its battery, metal and other parts so it did still require petroleum and somewhere to be a coal mine, he said.