These are the findings of a new report by Adiona Tech titled Connected Thinking that makes the strong case that Australia is not putting enough attention into electrifying truck fleets.

“Our data shows that consumer adoption of EVs should not be Australia’s number one priority,” says Adiona Tech CEO and co-founder Richard Savoie. “Electrifying fleets is by far the most efficient way to reduce vehicle emissions. Every battery we put in a truck or van counts for 5 to 50 households buying an EV, and businesses often have hundreds of vehicles.

“Australia must prioritise the electrification of vehicles that are on the road most, travel the longest distances, and are the least fuel efficient.” The report says that electrifying 10 vehicles used for last-mile delivery (e.g. rigid trucks) is as beneficial as 56 households buying an EV.

The report also shows that on average articulated trucks are doing seven times more kms than passenger cars. This means that by electrifying trucks sooner will have a bigger impact on emissions and air pollution because of the higher utilisation.

Trucks are also obviously much heavier meaning on top of much longer distances, the additional weight means they burn a lot more fuel. “We can calculate how much fuel and CO2 emissions are produced by all different vehicle types in Australia.” says the report.

“These figures are even more jarring than the kilometres driven figures, and there is an even bigger gap between passenger and commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are often larger, heavier and less fuel efficient than their passenger counterparts. They are also far more likely to use diesel, which produces more CO2 than petrol.”

Spewing out 111 tonnes of CO2 per year, articulated trucks produce almost 40 times more emissions than the average passenger car. This huge difference results in articulated trucks contributing to 15% of all vehicles emissions despite only making up just 1% of all vehicles.

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Source: thedriven