Skip to main content

Australia’s first all-electric truck takes to the road

Australian express road freight company, Toll Group, has unveiled what it says is the country’s first all-electric truck. Toll will use the 10-tonne Smith Electric vehicle during an initial three-month trial that will look at how the vehicle performs in Australian conditions, and its operational cost. Toll will use data from on-board diagnostics that can be viewed online to monitor the vehicle’s performance in real-time. The truck has a range of up to 200 kilometres and a top speed of 95km/h. It uses
September 4, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Australian express road freight company, 7475 Toll Group, has unveiled what it says is the country’s first all-electric truck.

Toll will use the 10-tonne Smith Electric vehicle during an initial three-month trial that will look at how the vehicle performs in Australian conditions, and its operational cost. Toll will use data from on-board diagnostics that can be viewed online to monitor the vehicle’s performance in real-time.

The truck has a range of up to 200 kilometres and a top speed of 95km/h.  It uses a Lithium-ion 80 kW battery and requires five to six hours overnight charge.

Speaking at the unveiling, Toll Group Environment and Energy General Manager Nick Prescott said Toll is constantly looking for ways to apply new technologies and practices to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources.

“We are extremely excited to be the first to get a look at this type of vehicle,” Prescott said. “It is an example of the sorts of things we’re doing as part of our broader smarter green environmental program, which looks at the use of smarter fuels such as biodiesels, compressed natural gas and electric vehicles, but only when it makes operational and economic sense to do so. The Smith Electric adds to the many CNG, LNG and hybrid vehicles we operate in Australia and globally.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Australia's first driverless bus takes to the open road
    September 1, 2016
    Australia’s first fully driverless and electric shuttle bus, the RAC Intellibus, has begun on-roads trials in South Perth, following tests in a closed environment, as part of the Royal Automobile Club’s (RAC) plan to trial autonomous vehicle technology. The RAC Intellibus will carry passengers and interact with traffic, parked cars, cyclists and pedestrians as it travels along South Perth Esplanade between the Old Mill, near the Narrows Bridge, and Sir James Mitchell Park.
  • Royal Mail trials micro electric vehicles
    October 6, 2021
    Both MEVs will operate in Edinburgh, Crewe, Liverpool, Swindon and London
  • Electric minicabs to debut in London
    October 25, 2012
    Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD and London green minicab company greentomatocars have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create London’s first fleet of all-electric minicabs. BYD will supply greentomatocars with 50 of its pure electric e6 models for trial use in the capital. The cars are expected to be available for customers to use from the second quarter of 2013.
  • IBTTA 2011 Annual Meeting highlights developing trends in tolling
    January 26, 2012
    Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser of this year's IBTTA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, talks about hot topics for discussion. The IBTTA's 79th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, which takes place this year in Berlin in September, will once again take many of the developing trends from around the world and look at their effects on the tolling sector. Host organisation Toll Collect's Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser, says that the event has to be viewed against a backdrop of major global change.