The federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency, or ARENA, has released the country’s first nationwide blueprint to transition heavy vehicles to battery electric.
It has released the ‘Electrifying Road Freight’ report which outlines the challenges and steps to be taken to make Australia’s road freight more renewable and efficient.
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This has been done by analysing market conditions, technology trends, key use cases, energy demand, and the impacts on future energy supply.
The report has found three key takeaways for the road freight and logistics industry to begin the journey to electrification.
ARENA has estimated that the country will need 165 heavy vehicle charging hubs in order to support a wide scale move to battery electric vehicles.
This future electrified freight network will be collocated with existing port, road, and intermodal infrastructure. However, further localised planning will be essential to determine optimal sites on a micro scale.
Further to this, the report states that energy generation won’t be the main challenge, but transmission and distribution.
Forecasts indicate that there will be sufficient generation to meet the needs of the sector. However, insufficient transmission and distribution infrastructure pose a more serious challenge to the future of freight electrification – particularly to support interstate and intrastate freight rollouts.
Lastly, ARENA believes that urban road freight is much closer to electrification than other areas of transport.
Smaller vehicles, shorter distances, and depot-based operations make urban freight the most viable starting point and is electrification-ready. Intrastate and interstate freight will require staged infrastructure and planning.
