A Melbourne company has showcased a new portable EV charging solution that could help break many of the barriers electric truck and freight operators face in Australia.
At an event last week that The Driven was invited to, Go EV, an EV charging solutions provider, showcased an Australian-made portable charging skid with a large battery and a truck charger for depots, which could fast-track electric truck adoption.
The 20-foot skid solution is called ChargeNow and allows the transportable skid to be dropped in at the truck operator’s depot and connected directly to the site’s electrical supply.
This lets operators start charging heavy vehicles within the same week, saving months of grid upgrades and other hassles that come with deploying high-powered truck charging in Australia.
The ChargeNow skid comes with a 261 kWh Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) battery as well as a 640 kW DC fast charger. This setup helps supply up to 700 A of peak current to the vehicle.
The on-board battery can be expanded to a second unit, doubling the energy storage capacity of the system, allowing more electric trucks to be charged.
Mark Lampard, Director of Go EV, said: “ChargeNow allows electric trucking and freight operators to deploy ahead of planned fixed infrastructure to allow electric trucks to begin operation sooner”,
“For larger fleets, the ChargeNow solution is unique in Australia since it allows expanding the number of skids on site for operators, which helps energy storage to be pooled and deployed to support charging across any skid”.
The setup also comes with its own on-board distribution board that is rated to 1000 A of supply, so freight and depot operators do not need to build a new switchroom or permanent building structures that usually come at a cost and time constraints.
This helps deliver electric truck charging solutions much faster, rather than waiting for planning, civil, and electrical works and the site delays often found in deployments that have held business operators back.
Electric trucking is starting to take off in many parts of the world, including here in Australia, driven by rising diesel prices.
With electric truck model availability increasing and large fleet operators starting the transition phase, charging solutions like the ChargeNow solution could help many depot operators bring down the cost of getting truck charging deployed while minimising time to upgrade grid connections and construction costs.
