Letter to the Editor: Electric trucks are the future

DEAR News Of The Area,

THE price of diesel fuel must be sounding alarm bells to heavy transport operators.

How long will the price of diesel stay high, or more to the point how long will it take to return to the prices of a month ago – if ever?

How pleasing it was to see a B-double rated electric prime mover parked outside Parliament House in Canberra recently.

Not surprisingly, Australian trials are showing how much faster and more cost effective these vehicles are compared to diesel powered trucks.

For these reasons, the number of heavy-duty electric trucks is rapidly increasing in other countries, particularly in China.

Electrification offers the next great opportunity to bring down the cost of road transporting our groceries and thereby put sustainable downward pressure on inflation in the long term.

There will always be a place for diesel fuelled trucks in the outback, but electric trucks are a no-brainer on the major freight routes along the east coast.

Meanwhile, instead of embracing this new technology, conservative politicians in Australia are arguing that these vehicles don’t exist, that net-zero is a furphy, and that we should be drilling for oil or making it from coal.

Is this really how the conservatives see the future and how cost of living can be reduced?

Reaching net-zero is the driver of this technological revolution and we should be arguing for the rapid expansion of the infrastructure required to make heavy-duty electric trucks a reality – if only to reduce Australia’s dependence on imported diesel.

Regards,

Stephen OTTAWAY,

Mid North Coast.