Electrifying Road Freight Report Released

Electrifying Road Freight: Pathways to Transition, commissioned by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and completed by AECOM, is a high-level report with wide-ranging calls to action, including harmonising road access across state borders, amending licensing regulations, changing ADRs to increase EV model importation and usage, establishing funding mechanisms, and improving data sharing.

A prominent action is the call for a National Freight Electrification Strategy that has transition targets. Similarly pertinent is the recognition that greater access to skills training resources for industry is required to support electrification.

As anyone in the transport sector knows, good data can be hard to come by, and this report acknowledges its limitations in relying on publicly available data. Nevertheless, the authors are to be commended for their thorough research and stakeholder engagement in preparing the report. HVIA was a contributor to this process.

The report acknowledges the composition of the trucking industry, including the high prevalence of SMEs among operators and low margins, as well as the average age of a truck in Australia being 14 years old. To this end, the report calls for initiatives to support small operator access to electric vehicles.

Whilst the authors’ focus is solely on BEVs, it’s important to note that electrification isn’t the only answer for the road freight sector, particularly when it comes to long haul.

Some key pullouts worth noting from the report include:

> There is acknowledgement that operational requirements need to be minimally impacted by BEVs to see them more widely adopted;

> An estimated 165 freight charging hubs are said to be needed to support an electrified road freight industry;

> There is a strong focus on infrastructure, with calls for core freight routes to be identified and investigated for charging stations;

> Supply is unlikely to be an issue for the road freight sector, but aligning transmission and distribution networks to where they will be needed is likely to be the primary future challenge;

> The Hume Highway is identified as likely to need additional connections for charging hubs in Victoria;

> There are calls for demonstration projects to be run in both urban and regional locations; and

> Knowledge sharing between government and industry should increase, particularly around pilots and trials.

Whilst HVIA broadly agrees with most of the findings and actions, we would have liked to see greater emphasis on the role incentives will play, and see these as key to accelerating progress – this has been proven in California and across Europe.

HVIA would also like to see more ambition around the timeframes: many of the actions are deemed to be completed in one-two years, whereas most shorter time-framed actions should be underway already.

For further questions or thoughts around the report, please contact Dr Adele Lausberg at a.lausberg@hvia.asn.au.