One of the strongest messages from the electric truck panel at the Smart Energy Conference and Exhibition in Sydney was that fleet operators are not resisting electrification — they are overwhelmed by operational pressures and need practical support to navigate the transition.
Throughout the discussion, speakers repeatedly argued that the freight industry already understands electric trucks are coming. The challenge now is not convincing operators that electrification matters. The challenge is helping them manage rising costs, operational complexity, infrastructure uncertainty, and the commercial risks associated with adopting new technology.
Rainer Knobloch, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and Operating Officer at NewVolt, said one of the clearest signs of the industry’s current pressures was the lack of fleet representation in the room during the panel discussion.
“Apart from Bol (from Zterfleet) sitting in the front row, do we have any fleets in the audience?” asked Knobloch. “That’s a reflection for all of us.”
“We all come from mostly the energy sector. The fleets need to be taken along on this journey as well. They are the critical missing factor in all this.”
Knobloch said transport operators are not avoiding electrification because they oppose the technology. Instead, many businesses are currently focused on surviving immediate operational and financial pressures.
“They’re out there worried about paying the next fuel bill,” he said. “They’re not anti-electric truck. They just can’t hear that message right now.”
The panel discussion consistently returned to the gap between the energy industry’s enthusiasm for electrification and the operational reality facing freight operators across Australia.
Gareth Ridge, Director at Zenobe Energy Australia, said the industry must move beyond high-level EV messaging and start helping operators understand exactly how electrification works within their business.
“One of the things missing was having more of the operators and the people buying there to actually hear those messages,” said Ridge.
“So I think trying to get those messages out now to the people who are making the decisions, the operators, the actual people on the ground using the trucks — I think that’s the next step forward.”
Ridge said fleet operators need support with feasibility studies, route analysis, charging strategies, and financing structures rather than simply being told electrification is inevitable.
“It’s not a lack of the TCO or the economics,” he said. “It’s actually getting down into the operators and the fleet owners.”
To address this issue, Zenobe recently announced a $100 million fund designed to support early-stage fleet electrification planning and deployment.
“We announced a $100 million fund back at Freight Forward,” said Ridge. “What it is essentially is enabling resources, both people and money, to do those early feasibility works, to actually start figuring out how it works for them, what routes they can do, what makes sense for them, what is the economics and do all that modelling that they don’t have time for.”
The panel also highlighted that many transport businesses, particularly SMEs, simply do not have the resources to absorb the upfront risks associated with transitioning to electric trucks.
Richard Zee, CEO and Founder at Solarh2e, said smaller operators are unlikely to adopt electric trucks without stronger financial support mechanisms.
“The price of truck, electric truck, is still very high compared to a diesel,” said Zee. “If you’re thinking about tackling the SMEs, the smaller guys, they’re not going to be able to afford a $450,000 truck. They can afford a $200,000 diesel truck.”
Zee argued that governments need to play a larger role in reducing transition risk for operators.
“Governments need to provide a subsidy, and that subsidy must continue to happen,” he said. “The uptake of the charging hubs that are put in place, the initial gap funding has to be covered.”
The discussion also highlighted that fleet operators require operational certainty before they will commit to large-scale electrification.
Ben Hutt, CEO at Janus Electric, said many operators already recognise the benefits of electric trucks but remain uncertain about charging infrastructure, long-term policy direction, and financial risk.
“We all know that this is inevitable one way or the other,” said Hutt. “But what’s lacking in this country is a really clear policy framework that tells everyone that the government believes it too.”
Hutt said operators need confidence that the transition will be supported over the long term rather than changing direction with political cycles.
“The private capital is there,” he said. “But everyone is sitting saying, well, the government needs to signpost that I can do a 10-year discounted cash flow off this without it being horrifically bad if it goes wrong.”
Several speakers also argued that the freight industry needs a far more collaborative approach to electrification rather than fragmented competition between charging providers, infrastructure developers, truck suppliers, and retrofit companies.
Knobloch said the industry cannot afford to repeat mistakes made during the rollout of passenger EV charging infrastructure.
“We’ve all got to work together here,” said Knobloch. “We can’t do that to the transport industry because they’re on uptime, they have operational complexities, and they’re on contracts to deliver to their end customers.”
“We will all be sharing infrastructure in order to get this done.”
Bruce Hardy, Executive Director at Energy Futures Foundation, said the freight electrification challenge now depends on stronger collaboration between the transport and energy sectors.
“The idea that we need energy and transport folks to collaborate very closely is absolutely the key theme,” said Hardy. “This is the first step of trying to accelerate that journey.”
As the panel concluded, the message was clear — fleet operators do not need more presentations telling them electric trucks are the future. They need practical assistance, financial certainty, operational guidance, and infrastructure that allows them to confidently transition their businesses without taking unacceptable commercial risks.
