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https://thedriven.io/2026/05/06/australia-at-tipping-point-for-switch-to-electric-trucks-as-half-its-diesel-fleet-nears-replacement/>
"Australia is at a tipping point for electrifying transport as more than half
of the country’s trucking fleet is due for replacement, and needs to act to
avoid a repeat of the current fossil fuel crisis, a leading transport and
energy expert says.
Bruce Hardy, the head of Energy Futures Foundation, an independent
not-for-profit and non partisan group focused on transport and energy, says
Australia would not be facing the fossil fuel supply issues it is now had it
learned and acted on the hard lessons of the last two crises.
“This was the same pattern during [the] COVID [pandemic in 2020]. It was the
same pattern when Russia invaded Ukraine [in 2022],” Hardy told the Smart
Energy Conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
“The fundamental point here is that we are a small island nation at the end of
very long supply chains, as our politicians are very glad to tell us, and we
are importing fuel to power the arteries of our economy, instead of relying on
the electrification potential within our fleet.”
Hardy says 56 per cent of the trucking fleet in Australia is approaching
replacement; if they’re replaced with new diesel trucks, that will lock the
country into another 15-20 years of fossil fuel use.
“We’ve got this tipping point in the market,” he says.
“There’s a window in the next five years where if we offer that fleet a
meaningful pathway to zero emissions and to electrification, we will have a
tremendous opportunity to accelerate that curve, which is currently sitting in
an abominable last place.
“Now is the time to act from a perspective of changing over the trucks. Now is
the time to think about what it is that we need to have, both from an industry
perspective and also from an energy system perspective.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
