The ATA’s 2025 Technical and Maintenance Conference (TMC 2025) heard that powered e-trailers could be a key to reducing emissions in Australia’s trucking industry.
HVIA Chief Technical Officer, Adam Ritzinger, and VE Motion Co-founder and CEO, Dean Panos, presented on the benefits of powered trailers and how they can be used to lower carbon emissions.
The session discussed the Australian trailer industry’s innovation, particularly in regenerative energy axles and motor power axles.
The key points from the session included the potential for energy recovery during braking, which can power ancillary equipment and reduce truck load, and highlighted the need for regulatory frameworks to support these technologies, mentioning ongoing advocacy and the development of guidelines.
Adam Ritzinger noted that trailer manufacturing in Australia is very active.
“And that’s something that takes great pride. We have a lot of members in the trailer industry that work day-to-day, creating amazing innovations,” he said.
“We’ve got a really strong track record of innovation in this country. That’s what makes the sector so strong and so unique. We have made some of those innovative trail combinations in the world. Some of them are quite unique.”
Ritzinger said coupled with trailer manufacturing is the current decarbonisation challenge that needs to be addressed.
“That is a challenge for us. We absolutely need to chart our course. There is no reason why we should be waiting for another country to tell us what this technology looks like when we have capabilities and skills and experience and the drive to do it,” said Ritzinger.
The session on day one of TMC learned about regenerative energy, axle and motor power.
A regenerative energy axle is an axle that can have physical mechanism to recover the kinetic energy from a rotating axle that’s either split during braking or while the trailer is coasting along and transform that into electrical energy and used or stored.
A motor power axle takes those capabilities and expands them into the next step, as it adds an onboard power source to drive one or more of the trailers axes. It can therefore assist the motion of the trailer and take some of the load off the truck.
Adam Ritzinger noted that currently Australia doesn’t have a current regulatory pathway for enabling a power axle on a train.
“You can do the energy regeneration, capture the energy. You can store it. You can use it to power refrigeration unit or anything like that. You can’t use it to derive the power to drive the trailers,” he said.
Powered e-trailers have a regenerative energy axle that transforms kinetic energy into electrical energy, and an on-board motive power axle that can be used as a power source to drive the trailer axles.
“Powered trailer systems offer an economical avenue now, and we’re ready to go with the technological components,” said Dean Panos.
“We don’t need massive subsidies or billion-dollar infrastructure investments, we just need industry and regulatory acceptance to make it happen.”
Panos noted in his presentation said that Australia had always been a global leader in enabling and normalising heavy freight technology – introducing B-doubles and pioneering long combination triples and road trains.
“So, if anyone is going to decide what the trailers of our future will look like, why can’t it be us, right here in this country? We already set the standard for weights, dimensions, and axle configuration, why can’t we decide how they are powered as well?” said Adam Ritzinger.
Session attendees also heard about upcoming trials in Adelaide, New South Wales, and New Zealand, with expected benefits in fuel efficiency, emissions reduction, and productivity.
The discussion also covered the technical and regulatory challenges, including the need for coordination among state and federal regulators.
Learn more about the findings from the ATA’s TMC 2025.
