Electric trucks gain momentum as freight SMEs seek funding

CONTAINER transport operators have gathered at Yarraville, Melbourne, for a practical workshop on applying for government funding towards fleet decarbonisation.

The Victorian state government's Victorian Freight Decarbonisation Co-Investment Program was aimed at small to medium freight operators who sought grants of up to $300,000 from a pool of $8 million.

The event was co-hosted by the Container Transport Alliance Australia with renewable energy and EV fast charging company, NewVolt.

CTAA directed Neil Chambers said decarbonsation was “going to be inevitable” for businesses, including those who sought to buy their first fully electric-powered vehicles.

"There’s some 'fors' and 'againsts', but I think as new vehicle types start to come onto the market from different original equipment manufacturers, the possibilities are starting to open up," he said.

"The (Victorian) government’s grants program at least gives people the opportunity to defray some of the costs of trialling one of these vehicles."

NewVolt co-founder and chief executive Anthony Headlam said investment in an EV truck meant ownership of a "permanent zero-emission vehicle".

"Every electric truck on Australia’s roads, charging on Australian renewable energy, adds resilience to our supply chains," Mr Headlam said.

According to NewVolt, the carbon savings was about 10.7 tonnes, based on 10,000km of distance travelled on 40L of diesel per 100km.

NewVolt has been working towards three strategically located charging hubs across greater Melbourne, in Laverton North, Campbellfield/Somerton and Dandenong South.

Mr Chambers said aspects of the commercialisation of EVs were customer driven.

"Customers, too, are starting to ask for it, so some of the larger import companies and exporters are talking to their transport providers about how they will help them in their decarbonisation strategies," he said.

“With container logistics, there’s some positives in that most of the trucks go back to base after their shift.

"The negatives are that we need payload, we need to be able to pull fairly heavy weights and also most trucks in container logistics are double shifted. If we’re having to plug these things in for eight hours at a time, then that’s going to be a difficult transition because you’re going to need additional vehicles for the given freight tasks."

Victorian Department of Transport and Planning's Freight Victoria policy and strategy manager, Brendan McRae, said small to medium businesses "need more support" and the government took the view there would be a "broad acceptance of vehicles" from applicants.

Expressions of interest for the grant close on Wednesday, 22 April at 4pm.