As Australia confronts a fuel shock of historical proportions, a b-double truck hauling household goods will make its way silently from a Sydney warehouse to Canberra on Tuesday morning, the first delivery made by what one 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 it will cost about a third as much as the same trip in a standard diesel truck “using pre-war fuel estimates” says Dan Bleakley, chief executive of New Energy Transport, which plans to build a depot at Wilton with a dozen bays that can charge the fleet of 20 trucks it hopes to have on the road by the end of next year.
The demonstration run to Canberra comes as sales of battery and hybrid cars reach record levels and manufacturers and secondhand dealers report a surge in customer inquiries.
Chinese EV maker BYD said customer inquiries were up 50 per cent since the war in Iran closed a key shipping channel, sparking chaos on global energy markets and putting petrol prices in the headlights.
BYD reported a significant preference among its customers for EVs that run on a battery only, over plug-in hybrid cars that have a petrol motor and a battery.
“There’s been a big shift towards the electric only, especially for more affordable priced vehicles the $30,000 mark,” BYD spokesman Paul Ellis said.
“Inquiries have gone through the roof. Our dealerships are full with people wanting to test drive.”
Searches for EVs are up 30 per cent on the website of Pickles Auctions, one of the nation’s leading auction houses.
Pickles general manager Brendon Green said he expected to hit an EV sales record this month.
“We have never seen anything like this before,” he said.
The time taken for Pickles to sell an EV has fallen from around 15 days to 10 days.
Green said that although EVs tended to lose resale value slightly faster than other vehicles, he now expected the fuel shock to put a floor under prices.
Analysts predicted that without a swift end to the Iran war, which has stopped one-fifth of the world’s oil production from entering the market, the global benchmark Brent oil price could reach $US200 a barrel.
A rule of thumb says that for every $US10 rise in the Brent price, petrol prices rise 10¢ at the bowser in Australia. Oil is currently trading at $US107 a barrel, up from about $85 in December.
The Electric Vehicle Council said new figures showed a dramatic lift in sales. Sales of battery-only vehicles nearly doubled in February compared to the same period the previous year.
There were 11,134 battery-only EVs sold in February, up from 5684 in the same month last year.
When plug-in hybrid vehicles and battery-only vehicle sales are combined for February, EVs hit an all-time high market share of 18.6 per cent of new car sales.
The market share of EVs for 2025 was 13.1 per cent.
National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association chief executive Rohan Martin, whose organisation represents lenders who offer novated leases for workers using salary sacrificing to save on EV purchases, said the oil market shock had driven a demand for EV loans, particularly in commuter belt suburbs.
“NALSPA members are certainly experiencing a noticeable uptick in EV inquiries since the commencement of the conflict in the Middle East,” Martin said.
“We’ve seen a skew to EV take-up in the middle to outer suburbs, where motorists are typically travelling farther.
“There’s a direct correlation with increased fuel prices, undoubtedly.”
Long-range electric trucks are new to Australian roads, but they have begun outselling conventional trucks in China, where government policy has pushed the electrification of energy supply and transport in order to free the nation from dependence on offshore oil.
Bleakley said improvements in battery and recharging technology now made the trucks, which drive five or six hundred kilometres on a single charge that takes less than an hour, viable on Australian roads.
He said that after the United States, Australia was the most truck-dependent nation on earth: 4000 heavy trucks move up and down the Hume Highway every day. “Heavy trucks, prime movers, make up 3 per cent of commercial vehicles in Australia, but they move 80 per cent of the tonnes of stuff we move around the country,” he said.
“They use half of all the 30 billion litres diesel used in Australia every year. If we can electrify just a small amount of that, we can take a huge load off diesel demand, which provides more for farming and agriculture,” said Bleakley.
So what is a big rig like to drive?
According to George Eleftherious, behind the wheel this week for New Energy Transport, they are fast and smooth and silent.
“It’s just a bit less stressful. It’s like driving a limo,” he said.
Nick O’Malley is National Environment and Climate Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and a 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.
