Current situation re electric trucks in Australia, where lots of stuff moves long distances (quoting James Purtill’s ABC article) : “ About a fifth of trucks in Australia are prime movers used for "line haul" long-distance bulk transportation of freight between cities and towns.

“”Battery-powered models are available but have limited applications, Mr Hammond [the Trucking Industry Council's (TIC) chief technical officer] said.

"You'd be lucky to get 300 kilometres on any of the major transport routes before you need probably a two-hour recharge," he said.

More powerful chargers would reduce this time but place a greater strain on the regional power network.

The amount of power required to recharge an electric road train in the space of an hour was about equivalent to that of a small commercial building, which would be more than some towns' spare capacity.

Hundreds of dedicated charging depots would need to be built to electrify intercity freight, and this would be expensive.” [end quote]

#electricTrucks #Australia #AusPol #dieselTrucks #diesel #EVs #truckingIndustry

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-04-09/record-sales-of-electric-trucks-price-parity/106526476

A wave of low-cost electric trucks is heading for Australia

Diesel trucks are the backbone of the national supply chain, but figures buried in recent sales data could mark the beginning of the end for these kings of the road.

B-doubling down on electric trucks

Bridget McKenzie, the National Party’s leader in the Senate, was contemptuous. During an urgency motion on March 30 about the government’s response to the global fuel crisis, she fired up over suggestions that Australia should look at electrifying the country’s heavy vehicle fleet. “To hear the ridiculous contributions from the Labor Party senators, who somehow think you can hook up a B-double full of cattle, coming down from Rockhampton to Brisbane, and actually use an electric truck? Seriously?”

The Saturday Paper
@Cloudslave
Maybe Mr Hammond is just not totally up to date… a bit like Bridget McKenzie… It seems there are a LOT of pretty recent developments, & the swappable batteries is just one of them. 🙂