The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will provide a $36 million boost to the Driving the Nation program, bringing the available funding to $100 million to support the electric transition for heavy vehicles in three focus areas.
ARENA said it is separately providing $28.6 million in funding to two projects, with $19.6 million committed to Linfox and $9 million to Toll – unlocking more than $124 million in investment into freight decarbonisation. Both projects were funded under the 2022 Driving the Nation focus areas.
ARENA CEO, Darren Miller, said the heavy transport sector has an important role to play in reducing the environmental impact of moving goods.
“The heavy vehicle market has matured significantly over the past year in relation to battery electric vehicles, particularly vehicle availability and infrastructure.
“However, there are still significant hurdles including upfront costs for operators, challenges with charging technology and infrastructure, as well as the lack of real-world data.
“Transport accounts for about one-fifth of Australia’s CO2 emissions, with heavy vehicles a significant share of the transport emissions pool, emphasising why ARENA is focusing in this area of greatest impact,” Mr Miller said.
“We know that customer demand across different modes of transport will continue to increase, with the transport sector expected to become Australia’s largest source of emissions by 2030.”
ARENA said its new focus areas will seek projects that support high impact demonstrations and deployments of electric trucks, the deployment of heavy vehicle charging solutions, and other innovations to encourage the uptake of battery electric vehicles, regardless of size.
Under the 2022 focus areas, Australian logistics company, Linfox, will receive $19.6 million to deploy 26 battery electric trucks and charging infrastructure across three distribution centres in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.
The trucks will be deployed over three years to a range of customers across metropolitan and regional routes, with the aim to validate the performance of heavy EV trucks over longer distances, multiple duty cycles per day and at scale.
ARENA will also provide Toll with up to $9 million to support its ‘Project TruckVolt’, which will roll out 28 battery electric trucks and required infrastructure at ten customer and Toll-owned sites across Australia.
Toll said the funding will provide critical insights into the integration of electric trucks within its logistics operations, including energy requirements for charging and operational considerations such as route planning, payload, and duty cycle management.
The company plans to co-draft a report with RMIT University to assess the project’s outcomes, which is expected to be shared with industry peers to advance the sector’s understanding of heavy vehicle electrification.
Toll Group Managing Director, Alan Beacham, said that Toll is also making significant investments in fuel-efficient models as part of its decarbonisation strategy.
“Our Australian fleet is undergoing a major transformation. While we’re committed to electrification, we’re also investing over $200 million to upgrade 25 per cent of our fleet with more fuel-efficient vehicles, delivering emissions reductions of 5-10 per cent.
“Fully transitioning to electric isn’t feasible overnight, but by combining electrification with these more efficient models, we’re doing everything we can to reduce our environmental impact and support our customers,” Mr Beacham said.
Mr Miller said supporting Linfox and Toll to electrify their heavy vehicle fleet is a significant milestone in ARENA’s goal to decarbonise transport.
“By transitioning to electric vehicles, not only are these companies able to reduce their carbon footprint, but it also sets a new standard for sustainability in freight.
“This is what our Driving the Nation program is about – providing support to businesses to electrify their fleets, and in turn, accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles on our roads,” Mr Miller said.
ARENA said that both projects will contribute to its decarbonisation goals and assist the industry in assessing the technical and commercial feasibility of electrifying heavy vehicle fleets and showing the transport and freight sectors what is possible when decarbonising heavy vehicles.
The new focus areas under the Driving the Nation Program are now open to applications.
Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, said reducing emissions in trucking means cleaner air and quieter streets for everyone.
“We’re working with trucking companies to make it easier to electrify their fleets, so their heavy vehicles are cleaner, quieter, more comfortable to drive, and cheaper to run.”
Linfox CEO Australia and New Zealand, Mark Mazurek, said, “As an early adopter of electric vehicles, Linfox is proud to be partnering with the Federal Government to grow our electric fleet and accelerate efforts to decarbonise the logistics and supply chain in Australia.”
Mr Beacham said the project was one of the largest corporate investments in heavy electric vehicles in Australia, putting Toll at the forefront of the country’s logistics decarbonisation efforts.
“The funding from ARENA supports an important part of our broader strategy to optimise the environmental sustainability of our operations, and we’re delighted to be supporting our customers through a shared commitment to decarbonising their supply chains without needing to rely solely on carbon offsets.
“We’re excited at the prospect of expanding electrification across a larger portion of our fleet over time.”
