The Albanese Government is making Australia’s transport industry cleaner, cheaper to run, and quieter with a $36 million funding boost to the Driving the Nation program, bringing available funding to boost take up of heavy electric vehicles in the logistics and delivery sectors to $100 million.
Transport accounts for one-fifth of Australia’s emissions, with heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses responsible for a quarter of these transport emissions.
The additional funding reflects a renewed focus for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help decarbonise Australian transport by encouraging heavy EV adoption and integration including through better charging infrastructure, and innovation as part of Driving the Nation.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said reducing emissions in trucking means cleaner air and quieter streets for everyone.
“We’re working with trucking companies to make it easier to electrify their fleets, so their heavy vehicles are cleaner, quieter, more comfortable to drive, and cheaper to run,” Minister Bowen said.
The new Focus Areas seek projects that support deployment of electric trucks and heavy vehicle charging as well as other advancements that encourage the uptake of battery electric vehicles.
Separately, ARENA has also committed $28.6 million to support electrification projects from Australian logistics companies, Linfox and Toll.
These grants will unlock more than $124 million in private capital to reduce emissions across these national carriers.
Linfox will use a $19.6 million grant to help roll out 26 battery-electric trucks across three of its distribution centres in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, building supporting charging infrastructure at the sites.
Toll will use a $9 million grant to deploy 28 battery-electric trucks and construct supporting charging infrastructure at 10 sites across Australia.
