Australia Post is set to trial the Fuso eCanter becoming the first Australian company to put the electric truck into action as part of its growing electric fleet.
Completely silent and with zero emissions, the Fuso eCanter is a 3.5 tonne truck that uses 6 lithium-ion battery packs totalling 82.8kWh capacity offered by the Daimler Trucks brand. It is already in use in a number of countries around the world by logistics companies in the UK, Portugal, Japan, and the US.
It will be trialled by Australia Post in the Sydney CBD to check its suitability for customer pickups and deliveries.
If it proves to be a successful addition to the Australia Post fleet, it will become part of Australia’s largest electric fleet, according to general manager for transport and aviation James Dixon.
“We currently have over 2,200 electric vehicles on the road around Australia – with an additional 1,000 on order making us the nation’s largest electric vehicle fleet operator,” he said in a statement.
“While these are primarily smaller last-mile delivery vehicles such as bikes and trikes used by posties, we’ve trialled electric vans in our operations before, too. We’re excited to see how the eCanter performs in Australian conditions,” he said.
Delivering 390Nm torque and 115kW output from its electric motor, the Fuso eCanter has a range of around 100km.
Compared to the diesel Fuso Canter, Daimler Trucks says that the running costs are significantly lower; as much as €1,000 ($A1,620) per 10,000km driven.
Australia Post has been setting an example for Australian fleets ordering an additional 1,000 tri-wheeled electric delivery vehicles from Swiss EV maker Kyburz in February following trials of the eDVs in 2017.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.