The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed $100 million to drive the heavy truck electrification under its Driving the Nation program.
The program, signalling a significant push toward decarbonising Australia’s road transport sector, targets three key areas: advancing electric truck deployment, charging infrastructure, and new technologies to accelerate battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption across the country.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the heavy transport sector has an important role to play in reducing the environmental impact of moving goods.
“The heavy vehicle market has matured significantly over the past year in relation to battery electric vehicles, particularly vehicle availability and infrastructure,” he said.
“However, there are still significant hurdles including upfront costs for operators, challenges with charging technology and infrastructure, as well as the lack of real-world data.
“Transport accounts for about one-fifth of Australia’s CO2 emissions, with heavy vehicles a significant share of the transport emissions pool, emphasising why ARENA is focusing in this area of greatest impact.”
Miller added that ARENA is aware that customer demand across different modes of transport will continue to increase, “with the transport sector expected to become Australia’s largest source of emissions by 2030”.
Further emphasising this shift, ARENA has allocated $28.6 million to two major logistics projects, awarding $19.6 million to Linfox and $9 million to Toll Group.
The two groups are expected to unlock over $124 million in freight decarbonisation investments.
Both companies were selected under the 2022 Driving the Nation initiative and will use this support to expand their electric truck fleets and develop essential charging infrastructure.
Alan Beacham, Toll Group Managing Director, said the project was one of the largest corporate investments in heavy electric vehicles in Australia, putting Toll at the forefront of the country’s logistics decarbonisation efforts.
“The funding from ARENA supports an important part of our broader strategy to optimise the environmental sustainability of our operations, and we’re delighted to be supporting our customers through a shared commitment to decarbonising their supply chains without needing to rely solely on carbon offsets”, he said.
“We’re excited at the prospect of expanding electrification across a larger portion of our fleet over time.”
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