Funding for infrastructure to quickly swap out long-haul electric trucks' batteries at depots, lay-bys and service stations.
In about the same time it takes a truck driver to order their steak and cheese pie and coffee to go, a semi-robotic gantry will be lifting out and replacing the two-and-a-half-tonne battery in their truck in the energy retail stations of the future.
That’s the vision of E Truck’s director Ross Linton, whose company is one of the latest recipients of the governments Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund.
“By early 2022, we will have a demonstration model of a semi-robotic gantry swap brought in from China,” he said. “It will be just like swapping an LPG bottle except this exchange is for 40 tonne plus trucks.”
At its Auckland depot, E Trucks will be demonstrating the battery swap system as a proof of concept, and it is expected to be of interest to infrastructure projects, a port or container facility, a dairy factory, or a large trucking companies making metro deliveries of around 140kms rather than intercity.
For those longer intercity journeys Linton says E Trucks will also be discussing the battery swap concept with traditional fuel retail outlets.
The lack of charging facilities and support infrastructure is one of the barriers to EVs as well as to heavy E Truck pick up in New Zealand, according to Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.
“The industry supports the ongoing development of alternative technologies towards zero to low emission vehicles on our roads,” Leggett said.
“What we all want is the same expediency as we have now with driving into a fuel station, filling up and driving off. The infrastructure required to support EVs is challenging but not impossible. It will require a massive requirement of electricity supply on top of what we have now.”
Announcing the funding support for E Truck’s import of the gantry, Energy Minister Dr Megan Woods said the initiative would save valuable time for truckies.
“It will mean they’ll be able to quickly swap in a fully charged battery to continue their journey, leaving the old battery for recharging later and at off-peak times when electricity is cheaper."
The battery swapping station for electric trucks is among a range of new low emission transport projects getting government co-funding as part of the government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund.
There have been 10 rounds of the contestable fund, and in the current round focusing on investment in the heavy transport and the public charging network, 22 projects will receive $6.5m. Recipients will also contribute an additional $12.8m of their own money.
Woods noted that the round 10 projects come from the final round of the fund in its present form, as the government will progressively increase the size and scope of the fund to $25m a year by 2023/24.
“Expanding the scope of the fund will not only further help us tackle transport’s climate impact, it will also encourage more growth in the low-emissions technology sector,” Woods said.
Reflecting the change in scope, it will be renamed the Low Emissions Transport Fund with details to be announced by October.
