A new battery electric prime mover from Chinese manufacturer DeepWay is being put through its paces across Victoria, completing several deliveries in the past week alone.
DeepWay, a joint venture between Chinese technology company Baidu and vehicle financing firm Lionbridge Group, is seeking to develop autonomous battery electric trucks and has already made headway into a number of markets around the world.
The DeepWay Star is company’s flagship vehicle, but is built with a driver-centric cabin including a 270° surround-view, and a 1-metre-wide sleeper berth.
The truck itself boasts a range of over 500 kilometres when equipped with a 600 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack, or up to 419 kilometres with a 500 kWh battery pack. It charging from 0 to 80 per cent takes only 36 minutes, and the truck is also equipped with battery swap functionality.
While EVs are recording record sales in the passenger market segment, little headway has been made as yet in electric trucks, despite the efforts of New Energy Transport, Janus Electric, and the arrival of electric trucks such as Volvo, Windrose and now Deeply.
DeepWay revealed on their LinkedIn account over the weekend that one of its electric trucks had completed its first freight run with VCF Transport, a small freight and courier services operating across the Gippsland, Bass Coast, and South East Melbourne regions of Victoria.
The DeepWay Star carried 26-tonnes of cement from West Footscray to VCF’s depots in Dandenong South and Wonthaggi, before collecting a pallet of cardboard in Tarneit on its return trip – an overall 150-kilometre journey which only used 39 per cent of the battery charge.
Since then, according to social media posts from VCF and its managing director Mark Blackburn, the DeepWay Star has completed several more deliveries, including a 22-pallet load weighing around 18-tonnes on a 125km round-trip journey, and a 20-tonne load on a 152-kilometre round-trip journey.
On both journeys, the Star only used around 30 to 40 per cent of its battery capacity.
Blackburn also revealed that the DeepWay Star cost VCF only $350,000, a significant difference to some battery electric trucks currently on the market.
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