Electric vehicles for freight
The Victorian Government's $5 million, five year Electric Vehicle Trial is currently underway. Advances in battery technology and fuel cells are making electric vehicles feasible for short-haul freight delivery.
Advantages
- Reduce emissions - electric vehicles may be more efficient on a per-kilometre basis in a CBD setting due to the stop-start nature of CBD traffic
- Reduce vehicle operating noise, community and amenity impacts - particularly in densely populated activity centres. Deliveries to activity centres are often characterised by shorter travel distances and greater time spent idle in traffic, making them well suited for electric vehicles
Future opportunities
- Kerbside charging stations - located at loading bays to enable opportunity charging during pick-up and delivery operations.
- Freight trams - operate in activity centres elsewhere in the world. Could operate in conjunction with deliveries to small-scale freight delivery hubs from which freight can be transferred on trolleys or electric carts to local businesses
Challenges
- Freight related noise - unloading and movement alarms
- Current greenhouse-gas intensity of Victoria's electricity generation - electric vehicles do not necessarily offer a greenhouse-gas advantage unless they are recharged by renewable sources of electricity