Diesel trucks are the backbone of the national supply chain, but figures buried in recent sales data could mark the beginning of the end for these kings of the road.

One of the few positives to come out of the Western Asia war. We needed this petrol shock to do what we should have been doing much earlier. It’s great that the costs have gone down but lack of appropriate charges is still a problem.

Electric trucks had their strongest ever month of sales in March 2026, although they still account for a small proportion of total sales.

For the first time, electric models are available for the same up-front cost as their diesel equivalents, including for road trains.

There are anecdotal reports of a surge of interest in electric trucks as companies seek to reduce their exposure to the risk of future diesel price spikes.

  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    1·
    26 days ago

    Some interesting ideas but I feel you might be oversimplifying things.

    A “dumb” road train trailer costs around $200k. Just a big steel tub and wheels. There’s a significant additional cost both upfront and in maintenance to give them regenerative brakes, and drive, and battery axles, and control systems.

    I’ve never heard of a prime mover having a diesel / electric conversion. The web site you linked doesn’t seem to be working (might be my fancy https dns) but I feel like that would be an extraordinarily large cost - more expensive and complex than simply purchasing a new electric truck. Of course, I don’t have any data to support that.

    Battery swapping would be challenging in regional areas.

    I think that once passenger and light trucks are mostly electric, the imperative to convert freight will diminish somewhat.

    • nonentity@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      26 days ago

      I’m well aware of the costs and configuration of semis, b-doubles/triples, and road trains. Modifications to the trailers and dollies wouldn’t be a requirement, but electrification opens a lot more possibilities, and don’t even require the prime mover to be modified first.

      There are already road trains with trailers fitted with diesel engines and drive axles for extreme weight loads, and they would be a good test case for conversion.

      The Janus system isn’t Diesel-Electric, they’ve developed an electric motor as a drop in replacement for a standard truck diesel engine, it mates to the existing gear box and drive train of the truck, and also replaces the fuel tanks with battery bays. My intro to them was around the time this video was published.

      Battery swapping will be a challenge until the infrastructure is built out for longer routes, but it would be a one off outlay for a fleet operator, and will only become more practical the more it’s deployed.

      I see the opposite correlation with higher light vehicle electrification. Once fuel demand drops enough, its unit production cost will increase, which will only make electric transport more attractive economically.