SEA Electric unveils new images of electric truck with 350km range

New images have been released of the Isuzu F Series electric truck and other models by Melbourne-based electric vehicle maker SEA Electric.

The company, which specialises is zero emissions alternatives for the delivery and cargo industries, offers a number of electric cans and trucks by fitting its locally developed and has made electric drivetrains onto cab/chassis beds from makers such as Isuzu, Iveco and Ford.

The Isuzu F Series, which has 350km range and uses SEA Electric’s SEA-Drive 100 or 120 electric power-systems, is just one offering from the company which opened its manufacturing facility in the La Trobe Valley in October 2018 thanks to a support package from Labor Victorian government.

With a 136kW NMC battery, three-phase on-board charging and up to 14 tonnes gross vehicle mass, it has a top speed of 100km/hr and can recharge in under 5 hours.

Since the opening of its facility in Victoria, the company has been kicking goals overseas with trucks and vans now deployed in six countries including the US and New Zealand.

In Australia, SEA Electric products have been deployed by a small number of organisations including the City of Casey in Melbourne which in May deployed its first all-electric garbage trucks.

“We have global aspirations, with product currently deployed in six countries,” group managing director Tony Fairweather told AU Manufacturing.

One recent deployment includes a fleet of refrigerated trucks with 220km range being rolled out by the Countdown grocery chain in New Zealand and follows a similar deployment in Australia by fellow chain Woolworths.

The first of these will service St Johns in Auckland and surrounding suburbs, with a further 4 destined for Wellington, Hornby in Christchurch and Queenstown.

“We believe that electric vehicles will play a really important part of New Zealand’s lower energy future and by investing in electric delivery trucks we’re not only generating fewer emissions, but also helping to future-proof our growing online business,” Countdown safety and sustainability general manager Kiri Hannifin said in a statement.

The five trucks were purchased by Countdown at a cost of $NZ700,000 ($A658,000) with part of the cost covered by the New Zealand’s Low Emissions Vehicles Contestable Fund (LEVCF) to the tune of $NZ387,500 ($A364,000).

However according to Fairweather, the lack of similar support for electric vehicles at a federal level in Australia means there has been slower uptake of EVs here.

“Disappointingly, Australia is the only one if these with no incentives for EV operators, yet it is the only country where we’ve invested in assembly operations,” Fairweather said.

But according to Fairweather, “The economics now make sense and duty cycles can be achieved, so the EV transition is accelerating.”