SEA Electric calls for target on zero-emissions trucks

Electric truck maker SEA Electric is calling on Australia to mandate that seven per cent of new trucks hitting the road emit zero-emissions by 2024.

That’s over three times more than a strategy recently tabled by think tank Grattan Institute that 2 percent of all new truck sales are zero carbon emitting starting in 2024 before gradually rising to cover most new sales by 2040.

SEA CEO Tony Fairweather believes the Grattan Institute plan could go further and meet already-accepted baselines set elsewhere around the world.

“At SEA Electric we commend the work by the Grattan Institute in highlighting the very real issues which face the transport industry, and wider society in Australia today,” Fairweather said.

Globally there are jurisdictions leading the way by introducing guidelines for transport manufacturers and fleets that could be replicated in Australia, according to Fairweather.

One example is California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) Regulation, which has been implemented by the California Air Resources Board, (CARB) and since adopted by other states across the U.S. which is accelerating the first wave of zero-emission trucks to enter the marketplace.

“We are calling for this same framework to be replicated here in Australia, actively lobbying the federal government for action, “Fairweather said. “We need clear air quality targets, an understanding of the environmental impacts of transport, combined with zero-emission truck sales targets and company and fleet reporting.

“The Grattan Institute called for two per cent of new truck sales being zero emissions in 2024 but there is no reason this could not easily be expanded to seven per cent,” Fairweather said.

Founded in Australia in 2012, SEA has grown a global footprint with its SEA-Drive power-system, deployed across five continents in a range of applications from vans to heavy trucks.

In Australia, the company commenced volume production of all-electric trucks from its base in Victoria state last year.

The lineup covers models from 4.5t GVM capable of being driven on a car licence, and suited for local deliveries, through to 22.5-ton three-axle rigid trucks, with the range capable of being adapted for a wide array of final applications.

SEA’s latest vehicle – an all-electric aviation refueller — commissioned at Brisbane airport — was launched this week.

The Grattan Institute this week released a report saying exhaust-pipe pollutants from trucks kill more than 400 Australians every year and cause or contribute to diseases including lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, pneumonia, asthma, and type-2 diabetes.

14 per cent of the Australian fleet is pre-1996, and these trucks emit 60 times the particulate matter of a new truck, and eight times the poisonous nitrogen oxides, it said.