Prime minister Anthony Albanese has hailed the first deliveries of what will be by far the biggest electric truck fleet in Australia.
The first 43 of 60 ordered electric trucks were unveiled at the western Sydney depot of Team Global Express, whose intentions to go electric were first unveiled last year.
The fleet will include 36 Volvo eFL electric trucks – the company’s biggest electric truck order of its type – and 24 Daimler Fuso e-Canters.
The $44 million five year trial has been backed by $20 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The project includes a 1 MW battery and a 400 kW solar system at the depot.
“This is a game changer,” Albanese said at the opening.
“One third of the heavy vehicles operating out of this very big facility in Western Sydney will be all electric. That’s good for this company because it drives down emissions, it drives down their costs.
“These vehicles are being powered through the solar panels that are on the roof of this building with batteries, making sure that that storage occurs, and then being fully charged here in order to deliver goods throughout Sydney in a way that’s efficient, in a way that boosts productivity, and reduces costs.”
The electric trucks will be used to deliver parcels around the Sydney metropolitan area. Electric trucks have become very common in Europe, where a number of local governments have or flagged a ban on fossil fuel delivery vehicles to reduce noise and pollution.
Team Global Express says it was able to save $7,300 of energy costs in the first hour of the battery system being turned on.
“At the time of placing our order with Volvo, we held the record for the largest order of medium duty electric vehicles the company had received globally,” Team Global Express Group CEO Christine Holgate said in a statement.
The company says local communities will benefit from reduced vehicle noise and improved air quality, and its drivers will benefit from improved safety conditions through lower noise and vibrations and the general safety benefits of a new fleet equipped with the latest technology, sensors and telematics.
Volvo’s Global CEO Martin Lundstedt flew out for the fleet delivery. “Partnerships like the one we have with Team Global Express are vital as the world continues on its zero emissions journey,” he said.
 Note: Story has been updated to clarify that $44 million is the total cost of the project, not just the AFENA contribution.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.