<
https://thedriven.io/2026/03/05/trailer-technology-the-stepping-stone-to-long-distance-truck-electrification/>
"Long-distance truck electrification is starting to become a reality in
Australia, but the road ahead is long and complex as we have to roll out
charging infrastructure and progressively replace every prime mover in the
fleet.
Prime movers are an expensive asset and they are kept running over long
lifetimes. A quick scan of trucksales.com.au shows that there are over 200
prime movers from 2006 or earlier advertised for sale, some with over
1,000,000km on the clock and still fetching good prices.
No matter how well painted a 20-year-old truck is, it is not going to be as
efficient as a new one, and diesel trucks bought today may take 20 years or
more to cycle out of the logistics chain. That’s a long tail of diesel smoke
and carbon emissions.
Luckily we are starting to see trailer-based solutions that can improve the
efficiency of moving loads from A to B. Refrigerated trailers have a second ICE
engine in them that runs a generator to power the refrigerator. In a hot
country this consumes a lot of diesel to do so. There are two solutions to this
problem currently testing on the roads of Australia and New Zealand."
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
