Electric trucks take too long to recharge, right? Well, not if you swap out the batteries! As part of the recent Wood Transport & Logistics 2023 event, forestry and log haulage companies got a look into the conversion from diesel to electric that Fennell Forestry had made to one of their logging trucks in South Australia. Janus Electric provided the conversion and was using two 310kw battery modules. A total of 620 kWh’s could according to Janus, deliver up to 400-600km range out of one charge, depending on the vehicle configuration, gross vehicle mass and topography.

In New Zealand, ETrucks (exhibiting at Wood Transport & Logistics) likewise are using battery swapping (each weighing 2.8 tonnes) on electric trucks. Using a gantry crane at the moment, the swap is taking about 6 minutes. Fonterra and Mainfreight are setting up their own battery swapping hubs. With large New Zealand companies taking the technology onboard, and with new, fully automated robotic systems about to hit our shores, this is only the beginning, as Gav found out when speaking to Jamie Ryan from ETrucks.