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Posted by Caroline Tung
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12 June, 2026
CIVIL works for electric vehicle transport company NewVolt's first site in Melbourne's Laverton North are set to start in about a month.
It will be Australia's first open access electric truck charging hub, set to deliver ultra-fast charging and powered by three megawatts of capacity. The site is projected to service more than 100 trucks a day.
It is to be the first of a number of hubs, with other planned fast-charging sites include Dandenong South, Melbourne North, and the Port of Melbourne.
Chief executive and co-founder Anthony Headlam said the beginning of construction, which had been planned for years, was a significant milestone.
"Moving from planning to construction is the bit that matters — it means the project is real, the partners are committed, and the infrastructure is actually getting built," he said.
"That's what the freight industry needs to see."
Mr Headlam's team will continue to plan and work with fleets in the next six months to operationalise electrified trucks.
"A number of container operators already committed," he said.
More than 80 stakeholders from fleet operators, partners, investors, government, and industry attended NewVolt's groundbreaking event.
Construction and development managers from NewVolt backers who attended were:
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Resolve Partners (construction and development project managers)
- JET Charge (electrical and charging partner, designing and building the charging infrastructure)
- Citinova and their civil partners ARK Industrial
- ADP Consulting (engineering the electrical and civil design)
Fleets present for demonstrations were WM Waste Management Services, Fleet Plant Hire Solutions, CMV Truck & Bus, Daimler Truck Australia Pacific and Sany eTrucks Australia.
"Seeing a Volvo Trucks Australia prime mover, a Daimler, a SANY light truck, and a WM Waste compactor lined up on site made the whole thing real," Mr Headlam said.
"Add in SmartFlower Solar and Sunswap showing what's possible, and the picture starts to come together."
Laverton North was chosen for its proximity to Melbourne's western freight corridor, less than 13 kilometres from the Port of Melbourne.
"For electric trucks, location isn't optional — charging infrastructure has to be where the trucks already are, on routes they already run," Mr Headlam said.
"This site gives operators the ability to charge on their existing patterns without adding time or complexity."
An operator running port shuttles can charge between trips, and another operator working out of a container park further afield can route through Laverton North on their return leg without "significant deviation".
"That's the model we've designed around — infrastructure that fits the way freight already moves, not the other way around," he said.
"Container transport is one of the duty cycles this facility is specifically designed to support."
NewVolt has aimed for operations from the end of 2026, and scaled through to the first quarter of 2027.
