Foodstuffs North Island took the first step back in 2020 by converting a 24-tonne diesel Isuzu into New Zealand’s first fully electric refrigerated truck, with co-operation from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).
Sandy Botterill, head of ESG for Foodstuffs (NZ), says each electric truck can avoid 190 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
“We learned a lot about battery performance, weight, charging and the limits of existing technology,” said Botterill. “It also made one thing clear. To replace diesel across our fleet, we need trucks that are reliable, scalable and suited to real-world conditions.
“In the last two years, there’s been an incredible leap in the electric heavy transport space in terms of technology and infrastructure.
“In the past, the trials have been hit-and-miss – actually, more miss than hit in terms of power and range – and one of the unladen electric trucks could only get over the Auckland Harbour Bridge at 20km/h.
“Now, we finally have a viable option for a large-scale solution,” Botterill said.
Enter the DeepWay Star, the new energy heavy-duty truck built by Baidu and Lionbridge in the Chinese Hefei Anhui Province with zero-carbon and safe smart logistics through electrification and intelligent technologies.
In the last two years, there’s been an incredible leap in the electric heavy transport space in terms of technology and infrastructure.
Sandy Botterill, head of ESG for Foodstuffs (NZ)
The DeepWay 6×4 tractor unit (front-end) was recently on a roadshow in New Zealand and Foodstuffs was one of the first companies to give it a good run for its money. Incidentally, it’s very favourably priced compared with an equivalent European diesel truck.
Chris King, from the Foodstuffs North Island Fleet Safety Compliance team, drove the DeepWay from the Palmerston North depot to Wellington and back, and was impressed. The tractor unit was coupled with the Foodstuffs zero emissions refrigerated semi-trailer carrying a loaded weight of 41 tonnes.
He said it’s an extremely comfortable truck to drive and very quiet. There’s very little fatigue without the engine and drivetrain noise. “I never anticipated that outcome from the trial.
“With other trucks you are using a lot of energy, particularly the mind, to get the best out of the engine and constantly pushing the limit. With the DeepWay, you put your hands on the steering wheel, flicker into drive and away you go.
Chris King, of the Foodstuffs North Island Fleet Safety Compliance team, says it opens up opportunities for a different range of people to take up truck driving.
“You are instantly close to 600h/p – they pack a punch and the power delivery is silky smooth just like a Tesla. The regenerative braking is incredibly strong – I only touched the service brakes two or three times to Wellington,” said King.
“I breezed past a number of logging trucks on the lower reaches of Transmission Gully at 45-50km/h. The DeepWay used 4% SOC (state of charge) of power going up the hill on the motorway and, coming down the other side, it gave most of it back through regeneration.
“The truck enjoys going up and down the hills rather than driving along the flat. Uphill, you are using 100% of the power capacity and, if the batteries are getting a bit hot, the truck will just reduce the power back to around 60%, if needed.”
King said he was “quite blown away” by the simplicity of operating and driving the truck. “It opens up opportunities for a different range of people to take up truck driving.
“We tested over a week and did a lot of work on documenting the journeys around the lower North Island. The dashboard is very simple and monitors the power consumption and speed. We collected a lot of data.
“The general feeling across the business is extremely positive. The new electric truck has brought a special feeling of having a viable option compared to what we have trialled in the past.”
King said the 400km fully laden range was a bit aspirational but “we easily covered the 300km journey from Palmerston North to the Wellington region and back with 20% of charge remaining”. Energy consumption was around 1.35kwh per 100km.
The new electric truck is charged with a dual-gun system.
An ideal route for the electric truck might be two daily runs to Wellington – groceries to the supermarkets in the morning and a full load of milk to the depot in the early evening, with charging at the Palmerston North depot between runs.
King said fully charging the tractor unit took one-and-a-half to two hours with a high-output, two-gun system, and the current public infrastructure handles the job. However, a depot charging facility would be more efficient and cheaper from an operational perspective.
Botterill said any suitable return journey within 300km in the national supply chain would be obtainable for the co-operative.
Foodstuffs, one of New Zealand’s largest supply chain companies, has five distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North (two), Christchurch and Dunedin. There are smaller facilities in Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay.
Its fleet of company trucks and owner-operators covers 30 million kilometres through the country each year.
“That’s a lot of trucking and a lot of emissions. Even a few electric trucks can make a meaningful dent in our carbon footprint,” said Botterill.
She has estimated an 85% reduction in emissions can be achieved by replacing a diesel with an electric truck because of New Zealand’s low-emission electricity grid. This means 190 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year would be avoided by each electric truck.
“The electrification of heavy vehicles is one of our means to meet our Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets. And the early adoption of the vehicles gives us time to learn from them and better understand where the technology sits.
“If we reach a point where the technology is mature enough to be better than diesel and the price is cheaper, then there’s good reason to roll out electric trucks as far as we can,” said Botterill.
The Foodstuffs team is now presenting a case to the co-operative decision makers. “We are very hopeful of transitioning to alternative fuel vehicles. There’s nothing blocking us from using them on specific routes that make sense.
“I’d hope we can have an electric truck on the road within a year. They are ready to be purchased now but I don’t think it will be a Christmas present,” said Botterill.
One target is having up to 18 large electric trucks in the fleet by 2020. And funding is available.
The Government launched the Low Emissions Heavy Vehicle Fund in September last year, allocating $27.75m towards offsetting the purchase prices of low and zero-emissions heavy trucks.
The fund, operated by EECA, will contribute 25% of the purchase price for a new electric truck, and also 25% of the cost to convert an existing internal combustion engine (ICE) heavy vehicle powered by approved low-emissions technologies.
EECA has estimated heavy trucks make up less than 5% of New Zealand’s vehicle fleet, but account for roughly a quarter of road transport emissions. Switching 500 diesel-only vehicles to zero and low-emissions alternatives will prevent 366,662 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
Foodstuffs is an advertising sponsor of the Herald’s Sustainable Business and Finance report.