Delivery company Team Global Express has teamed up with ARENA (the Australian Renewable Energy Agency) to add 60 electric trucks to its fleet.
ARENA handles investments in the renewable energy space, including an investment earlier this year in August that would see local councils rollout curb-side EV charging.
Now, ARENA is contributing $20.1 million to Team Global Express’ efforts to electrify its fleet of delivery vehicles. Team Global Express is investing $24.2 million into the initiative, to a total of $44.3 million.
It’s not the first fleet of electric vehicles being added to a delivery company’s fleet, but 60 trucks is a sizeable amount: the largest electric fleet in the country, actually.
Those 60 electric trucks include 36 Volvo eFLs and 24 Daimler Fuso eCanters. They will be based out of Western Sydney, at Team Global Express’ ‘Depot of the Future’. fleet-scale charging infrastructure will be installed at Team Global Express’ depot in Bungarribee as part of the plan.
“We’re excited to be working with Global Express in switching a significant portion of its fleet to electric vehicles at its Bungarribee depot,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said.
“Operating a fleet of battery electric heavy vehicles will help to address some of the key barriers to adoption, including overcoming the higher upfront purchase price, and uncertainty of integrating electric vehicles into existing operations at scale. Understanding these barriers will help to build market confidence around EV technology and show that the transition to heavy electric vehicles is possible.”
This comes just days after Tesla launched the Semi, its fleet-oriented vehicle first purchased by PepsiCo.
While the Semi may never come down under (due to compliance rules), the Daimler and Volvo trucks being adopted by Team Global Express are being seen as a trial for the technology.
“This trial will not only reduce emissions, it will also give our valued employees at Bungarribee the opportunity to be trained on charging, driving and optimising the electric vehicles of the future. For Team Global Express, it’s an important milestone in our vision to be Australia’s most sustainable logistics company,” Group CEO of Team Global Express Christina Holgate said.
“This is the first project of its scale in Australian logistics, as such we are in a unique position to work closely with ARENA to share the knowledge we gain and provide this vital information for the benefit of the entire transport and logistics sector.”
Good on Team Global Express for getting behind electric vehicles, but obviously it’s not enough to solve the emissions issues of the wider transport sector.
It’ll be exciting to see more projects like this, but for now, I’m hoping my next delivery is at least partially fulfilled by an electric freight truck.