Leaning on past experience

Working on projects like the Ventura bus depot in Victoria and others across the previous few years has given Zenobē the knowledge and practical experience to take forward into its Mascot charging hub.

While truck and bus infrastructure has different requirements to be as efficient as possible, there are factors which can be applied to both.

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“I think our experience in bus depot electrification gave us a strong knowledge of the charger types needed,” says Zenobē’s Australia/New Zealand Director Gareth Ridge.

“Off-site charging needs fast charging. The other lesson is building on what we already know. We’re understanding more about the site movements, we get a little bit wiser about what works and what doesn’t.

“We can also leverage things like our charging plans. Our internal data analytics team runs all the peak power modelling, and it’s all the same models whether that be for truck or bus as we can load in all the route data we require. Woolworths has a fairly good idea of the number of kilometres required per day, and we can load that into our model with all the different parameters and scenarios and sensitivities to see the outputs required.

“From that we can design what charging infrastructure is required.”

This particular hub is servicing trucks that are doing local deliveries – all on the smaller end of the scale at predominantly 4.5 tonnes.

While they won’t travel far from South Sydney, they still require a full day’s worth of charge to operate their routes.

“The batteries will be fully utilised across a whole day’s run,” Gareth says.

“Mascot is an area which has a lot of commercial customers as well, so the payloads can be a bit heavier. For this we designed the depot in two ways, to make sure it meets the need for Woolworths but also future-proofed for any new customers or future needs down the track.

“The hub is currently oversized, but it’s done knowing that vehicles and batteries will get bigger, and we’ll be able to service them in the future and not be constrained by the charger capacity.

“Woolworths is the current anchor tenant, but they’re only taking up a portion of the site. We’re in discussions with a couple of other major logistics operators to use the other half of the site.”

Looking ahead

One of the predicaments of electrifying trucking fleets is the need for space to either install chargers, or the need to find somewhere to charge your trucks off-site.

Both come with their issues – until electric charging locations become as common as petrol stations, operators looking to go battery electric will have to find an answer for one way or the other.

Off-site charging hubs are one model to solve this, giving trucking businesses easy access to a location without having to invest in the infrastructure themselves. For smaller businesses in particular, this cost can end up being a bridge too far.

Gareth believes that it could be one option for electric fleets in the future, but not the only one.

“Charging hubs will become a key part of the mix, but it won’t be the only form of electrification option,” he says.

“I think on site electrification for large customers who own their sites will be one part, because it’s always easier to charge vehicles up when they’re back at base, if there’s space that is.

“But there is a large segment, that will need an off-site charging area, like those in last mile delivery. I do think organisations will start to design sites with chargers already built into them.”

While electric infrastructure is still in its early days, funding from ARENA is offering a significant incentive for not only transport businesses, but all sorts of organisations to think about whether electric is the right move for them to tackle their emissions goals.

For Zenobē, these funding programmes validate the need for electrification projects and the services it offers to electrify heavy vehicles in Australian fleets, driving forward the transition to zero emissions.

From their perspective, Gareth says electrification is still extremely early-on in the process Australia-wide, but this is evidence that steps are being taken not just by them, but the trucking sector in general.

“I do see an inflection starting to occur in the last mile space and in the prime mover side of the middle mile,” he says.

“The industry is still in the trialing, testing and getting comfortable with-it phase, which I understand. I think that’s what’s expected.

“I think we’ll see hundreds of trucks being electrified in the next few years because the economics are starting to stack up. There’s a lot of new truck OEMs coming to the market and the price is becoming more viable.

“On the prime mover and larger vehicle side, vehicle supply or options are still very limited. They’re coming but they’re just not there and they still cost so much more than a diesel engine.

“Compared to the bus side, there’s very little government funding to help. If it’s moving, it’s because it commercially makes sense, not because there’s someone telling them to do so.”