With Australian diesel prices recently exceeding $3 per litre, the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) today released a major new report exposing how outdated regulations are sidelining the country’s cleanest, cheapest freight technology – at the exact moment Australia needs it most.
ELECTruck Key Facts Media Pack
The reveals that Australia’s growing fleet of zero-emission electric trucks is parked for up to half of every day, not because the technology is unviable, but because freight curfews written for diesel engines apply equally to silent, electric vehicles.
The cost: up to $150 per vehicle, per day in lost productivity, a 15–25% productivity hit on every electrified route and up to $4 billion in lost national GDP every year from heavy vehicle access limits that the Productivity Commission has flagged as outdated.
“Australia has invested in the cleanest, quietest delivery technology ever built – and then locked it out of the very hours where it would make the biggest difference,” said Julie Delvecchio, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council.
“A rule designed to solve a diesel problem is now blocking the very technology that solves it. This is the most Australian policy failure you’ll ever see – but the fix costs nothing.”
The report lands as Australia confronts its worst fuel security shock in decades. With one fifth of the world’s diesel supply still disrupted and the Federal Government spending $2.55 billion on fuel excise relief in just three months, ELECTruck argues cutting red tape could make a huge difference right now.
“An electric truck can displace up to 45,000 litres of diesel per year,” said the EV Council’s Senior Policy Officer for Heavy Vehicles, Cameron Rimington. “Scale that to 50,000 trucks (which is achievable) and that’s 2.25 billion litres of diesel no longer imported, worth almost $5 billion at current prices. That’s money kept in the Australian economy instead of flowing offshore.”
“This isn’t about waiting for new technology. The trucks exist. The operators want them. The energy is here – the only thing missing is policy that’s caught up to reality.”
Five quick wins, zero excuses
ELECTruck outlines five immediate reforms that can be delivered within twelve months and cost taxpayers very little:
- Point-of-sale incentives for electric trucks: in Australia it can take 4 years to apply for government funding for an electric truck; in New Zealand it takes 4 minutes
- Lift noise restrictions for silent electric trucks: unlocking double-shift operations and removing trucks from peak-hour congestion.
- A national charging roadmap that includes heavy vehicles: the UK has committed £1 billion to heavy EV charging infrastructure; Australia is still at square one.
- Fix the “payload penalty”: a 2-tonne mass concession to offset the battery weight of electric trucks, already standard in the EU, UK and US.
- Open up the roads: reclassify electric trucks so they’re not banned from the council roads where most deliveries happen.
Australia falling behind every major freight economy
“This isn’t a climate cost. It’s not a transition cost. It’s an economic cost we are choosing to wear, every year, for no good reason,” Ms Delvecchio said.
“The trucking industry runs on 2% margins. Every dollar lost to inefficient regulation flows straight through to higher grocery prices, higher building supplies, higher retail costs. When trucks stop, Australia stops.”
The report follows the May 2026 Open Letter to Australian Governments signed by more than 45 industry leaders — including Volvo Trucks, Daimler Truck, IKEA, Tesla, JET Charge, ABB, DHL, Fortescue, ANC, Kempower, Energy Futures Foundation, Intium, MyNu Energy, Plus ES and Duka Tec — calling for coordinated national action.
Key statistics – at a glance
| $2.10 / L | $2.55 billion | $4 billion / year | $100-$150 per truck, per day |
| Current diesel price, down from over $3/L in April | Cost of a three-month cut to the fuel excise/road user charge | Productivity Commission estimate of foregone GDP due to outdated mass limits | Estimated productivity loss from noise restrictions (ANC case study) |
| 15-25% | 45,000 L | 630 | 340 |
| Estimated productivity uplift from curfew reform (ANC case study | Diesel consumed per articulated truck, on average | Electric trucks sold in Australia (Truck Industry Council) | Electric vans sold in Australia (Truck Industry Council) |
| 0.7% | 53.9% | 4 years | 4 minutes |
| EV share of heavy vehicle sales in Australia, 2025 (Truck Industry Council) | NEV* share of heavy vehicle sales in China December 2025
(*New Energy Vehicles) |
Time to access government incentives for electric trucks in Australia | Time to access government incentives for electric trucks in New Zealand |
About the report
ELECTruck: Powering Australia’s Trucks with Australian Energy is published by the Electric Vehicle Council, June 2026. The report features case studies from Daimler Truck, IKEA Australia, ANC Delivers, Kempower, JET Charge, Volvo Trucks Australia, Linfox and Transurban. International evidence is drawn from the UTS-led RACE for 2030 International EV Policy Scan (May 2026). The full report is available here.
