Tony Fairweather, founder and CEO of SEA Electric, took time out of the Brisbane Truck Show to chat with our podcast host Caroline Falls. They talk about the new Australian OEM’s expansion in the US, and Fairweather’s outlook for electric transport.

“The battery electric is the powertrain of choice for this segment,” said Fairweather, speaking about the last-mile, or urban delivery task. “Transitioning from now, next year and the year after, we’re going to be large in all markets globally. Even in developing markets, the incentives are there, the policies are coming into play. The diesel engine in terms of urban application will be dead in five to 10 years.”

SEA Electric started out in 2012 in Australia but is now headquartered in the U.S. as its proprietary drivetrains which can be fitted to an array of truck and bus bodies attract big contracts there, including for as many as 10,000 of the iconic yellow school buses.

SEA Electric now operates in several other countries, including New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India, Thailand and Indonesia. Other big deals in the US include an exclusive contract with Mack Trucks to provide the powertrain technology for its medium-duty lines — the MD6 and the MD7.

Swedish truck maker Volvo unveiled its first electric prime movers in Australia at the Brisbane Truck Show. Tim Camilleri, e-mobility Solutions Manager at Volvo Group, stepped up into the cab of the FM to record this interview with our podcast host Caroline Falls.

“If this vehicle doesn't make noise, what can we do with it? How do we optimise its usage even further above and beyond what a vehicle that would make noise does?” — Tim Camilleri, e-mobility Solutions Manager at Volvo Group.

Tim Staley, Transport & Logistics Lead and Chief Operating Officer at technology consultancy NCS, spoke to Fleet News podcast, about key trends in transport, including autonomous vehicles, mobility as a service, intelligent transport systems to dynamically manage traffic, and more.

Staley whose broad senior executive experience encompasses working at global consultancy Accenture, major world mining group Rio Tinto, Australian commercial rail group Aurizon where he helped automate their railway operations, and on the gas fields at energy group Origin commented on the evolution of environmentalism and how all the worlds he operated in have coalesced.

“It does seem very natural now that an ecosystem has formed that needs to rise as one to achieve a new automated future with greater mobility options and greater sustainability to support a growing population,” said Staley. 

Brendan Wheeler, who co-founded EV charger supply group EVSE in 2015, talks to Fleet News Group podcast, about Australia’s new EV strategy, the outlook for EVs and charging infrastructure and gives a template for fleet managers to follow when making the transition.

"We've really got to take them all the way back to the start and ask some of those fundamental questions, such as, how many vehicles do you have? How far are they driving? How long have they parked for, and really go into a bit more depth and detail around those aspects to then come up with a final solution."

"Federal, state and local government EV policies are aligning which should really help to set the foundation for explosive growth over the next few years”. 

Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls talks with Richard Lovell, executive director and head of debt markets at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, about the Federal Government-backed green bank’s investments to accelerate decarbonisation of the transport sector, including electrifying fleets.

“There's a few recent developments, that have been very conducive to the transport sector, on its pathway for decarbonisation. The first and most obvious is that at the passenger and light commercial end of that spectrum, we are seeing increased vehicle availability through a number of manufacturers bringing greater numbers of electric vehicles to Australia, the number of types of models as well as the number of actual cars has been increasing. And that's really important because for fleets in particular, it's critical that vehicles are suitable,” said Lovell.

He said he expects this diversity of available EV models in Australia to accelerate as manufacturers start to step up their ambitions to transition their own manufacturing in line with set targets.

Similarly, an expansion of vehicle charging options and networks is stimulating fleet electrification, said Lovell, adding it was a more complex part of the puzzle. 

“Charging infrastructure is quite a challenge, because it is difficult to undertake classic investment that sees charging infrastructure as a typical infrastructure asset which replace steady cash flows over the life of its use in order to repay the capital costs and generate a profit. That's really hard with charging infrastructure for a whole bunch of reasons.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Campaigner Violette Snow talks with Fleet News Group’s podcast host Caroline Falls about the pro environmental group’s inaugural fleet rankings, and a new report outlining the case for corporate fleets to transition to renewable energy powered electric vehicles.

IKEA was named top green fleet in Australia by Greenpeace in mid March for its progress and commitment to electric cars, vans and trucks. Bank Australia was ranked second and Westpac third in a field of 30 big brand fleets analysed.

Snow said the organisation devised the rankings to highlight commitments to cutting greenhouse gases. It also fits in with its campaigns to bolster use of renewable energy in Australia.

Fleet News Group’s podcast host Caroline Falls chats via Skype to truck industry stalwart and advocate Jacquelene Brotherton as she drives to an appointment (We mention that because the sound quality is a bit bumpy). They talk about the ups and downs in the industry, covering staff shortages, Scott’s transport group’s collapse, concern about sustainability, shifts to improve regulation, appreciation of drivers, and acknowledgement of professionalism in the industry.

Brotherton grew up out the back of Burke where she met her future friends and bosses in the transport industry. Today she wears several hats, including chair of the Transport Women Australia Ltd, which brings together women from every facet of the industry — drivers, administrators, etcetera — for mentoring, networking, training and awards.

In this Fleet News Group podcast linked here Samantha Johnson, managing director of Polestar Australia, talks about the Volvo sister company’s electric vehicle design and its pole position among automakers in the sustainability race.

“Polestar really are ahead of everyone else in the auto industry, and they are influencing others to come along on their journey,” said Johnson. “We are doing everything that we can to bring the emissions down to zero within our cars that we are manufacturing and also as an organisation.”

Johnson is formerly of Volvo, which is owned by Sweden-based Geely, the same group that owns Polestar. Polestar started selling its electric vehicle the Polestar 2 in Australia in 2021 and to date has about 2000 vehicles on the road. The Polestar 2 is based on the automaker's Precept concept.

Fleet management group EROAD’s business development manager Chris Emerson talks on this Fleet News Group podcast about increasing pressure on fleets to meet sustainability targets, the future of road funding and what is top of mind for fleet managers in 2023.

“We know that a lot of very large organisations and government organisations are definitely feeling the pressure of the 2030 targets to get their fleets as sustainable as possible, to reduce emissions as much as possible,” said Emerson.

Emerson was referring to United Nations’ so-called Paris agreement to cut greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030, compared with 2010 levels, in a quest to limit global warming, and climate change.

He talks about EROAD’s technology which helps fleets measure and manage their emissions, and identify vehicles that can be cut, or swapped to electric vehicles.

Stafford talks about connected vehicle technology trends, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning and their impacts on fleets and the fleet manager.

As a manufacturer of telematics and connected vehicle technology Stafford said Directed Technologies’ role is to ease the workload on fleet managers; to give them information which is actionable.

Directed Technologies is a leading automotive and electronics solutions manufacturer, and full stack connected vehicle solution provider to automotive and fleet brands around the world.