Sydney to Canberra delivery heralds new era amid fuel shock
A b-double truck carrying household goods will quietly make its way from a warehouse in Sydney to Canberra on Tuesday morning as Australia faces a fuel shock of historic proportions. This will be the first delivery of what an Australian start-up hopes will soon be a fleet of 20 electric long-haul trucks.
The 290km drive will be powered by renewable energy and will cost about a third as much as the same trip with a standard diesel truck “based on pre-war fuel estimates” Dan Bleakley, CEO of New Energy Transport, plans to build a dozen-bay depot in Wilton that can charge its fleet of 20 trucks, which it hopes to have on the road by the end of next year.
The show in Canberra comes at a time when sales of battery-powered and hybrid cars are reaching record levels and manufacturers and second-hand dealers are reporting an increase in customer demand.
Chinese EV maker BYD said customer demands have increased by 50 percent since the war in Iran closed a key shipping channel, causing chaos in global energy markets and oil prices coming to the fore.
BYD reported significant preference among its customers for battery-only EVs over plug-in hybrids with a gasoline engine and battery.
“There’s been a big shift toward electric-only for more affordable vehicles, especially in the $30,000 range,” BYD spokesman Paul Ellis said.
“Research is through the roof. Our dealerships are full of people wanting to take a test drive.”
Searches for electric vehicles on the website of Pickles Auctions, one of the country’s leading auction houses, increased by 30 percent.
Pickles managing director Brendon Green said he expected to hit an EV sales record this month.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said.
The time it took for Pickles to sell an electric vehicle dropped from approximately 15 days to 10 days.
Green said he now expects the fuel shock to create a floor in prices, although electric vehicles tend to lose resale value a little faster than other vehicles.
Analysts predicted that the global benchmark would enter the oil market if the Iran war, which prevents one-fifth of the world’s oil production from entering the market, is not quickly ended. Brent oil price It could reach $200 per barrel.
A rule of thumb says that for every $10 increase in the Brent price, oil prices in Australia increase by 10 cents. Oil is currently trading at $107 per barrel; It was $85 in December.
The Electric Vehicle Council said new figures showed a dramatic increase in sales. Sales of battery-only vehicles almost doubled in February compared to the same period the previous year.
11,134 battery-only EVs were sold in February; This figure was 5,684 in the same month last year.
When plug-in hybrid vehicle and battery-only vehicle sales are combined in February, EVs reached an all-time high market share of 18.6 percent in new car sales.
The 2025 market share of electric vehicles was 13.1 percent.
Rohan Martin, executive director of the National Automotive Leasing and Wage Packaging Association, whose organization represents lenders offering renewed leases to workers sacrificing wages to save on electric vehicle purchases, said the shock to the oil market has increased demand for EV loans, especially in commuter belt suburbs.
“NALSPA members have certainly experienced a noticeable increase in EV investigations since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East,” Martin said.
“We have seen a skew in EV uptake in the central and outer suburbs, where drivers typically travel further afield.
“There is undoubtedly a direct correlation to rising fuel prices.”
Long-range electric trucks are new on Australian roads, but They begin to outsell traditional trucks in ChinaTo free the country from dependence on offshore oil, government policy has pushed for the electrification of energy supply and transportation.
Bleakley said advances in battery and charging technology meant trucks were now available on Australian roads, covering five to six hundred kilometers on a single charge that took less than an hour.
He said Australia was the most truck-dependent country in the world after the United States: 4000 heavy trucks move up and down the Hume Highway every day. “Heavy trucks, backhauls, make up 3 per cent of commercial vehicles in Australia, but they carry 80 per cent of the tonnes of material we transport across the country,” he said.
“They use half of the 30 billion liters of diesel used in Australia each year. If we could power just a small fraction of that with electricity, we could alleviate a huge burden of diesel demand, which would open up more opportunities for farming and agriculture,” Bleakley said.
So what’s it like to drive a big rig?
They’re fast, smooth and quiet behind the wheel of New Energy Transport this week, according to George Eleftherious.
“It’s just a little less stressful. It’s like driving a limo,” he said.
Nick O’Malley is the National Environment and Climate Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and former US correspondent.Connect via email.
Mike Foley is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
