Electric trucks are ready – our policies aren’t

27 April 2026 | Barry Sterland and Martin Stokie

As Australian governments make efforts to secure our fuel supply, policymakers are looking at what can be done to reduce our reliance on this increasingly fickle supply chain.

This has driven a spike in attention in electric trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles. Last year, a conference on electric heavy vehicles at Parliament House drew a small handful of industry experts – this year that same conference was full of politicians, policymakers and media discussing the role these vehicles would have in Australia's energy future.  

Outside of the industry, these conversations can quickly slip into science fiction: ‘how long until we have the batteries and infrastructure to send fleets of electric road trains to every corner of Australia?’

But in our recent advice to the government, we at the Productivity Commission show that, when it comes to electrifying significant parts of our freight fleet, the future is now, and some of the biggest barriers are about policy not technology.  

The government asked us to look at a proposed package of reforms partly aimed at getting more heavy zero emissions vehicles on the road.

In our interim report, we found that in the near term, EVs will have the greatest impact on the ‘last mile’: getting goods from a distribution centre to a shop or your front door. Around half of total fuel consumption of heavy vehicles is for travel in urban areas and a substantial part of that is for back to base and short-haul freight movements.  

Here, EV technology is readily available and already in use. With some practical regulatory and administrative reforms, we can accelerate the uptake of these vehicles, and pave the way for more productive, efficient and environmentally friendly road freight.

First, state and local governments should look to remove noise-related curfews limiting deliveries from electric heavy vehicles in urban areas.  

These curfews were largely set for a world where all heavy vehicles had loud internal combustion engines. EV heavy vehicles are generally significantly quieter during deliveries. With fewer curfews, an electrified road fleet will be able to operate outside of peak hours, unlocking significant productivity gains while reducing congestion, emissions and particulate pollution.  

Second, planning rules have not kept up with changing technology, potentially making it more difficult to adapt our infrastructure for the electric freight future – whether by installing chargers in existing depots or building new charging hubs. Relevant planning regulations should be updated to allow for heavy EV charging to be more easily installed in existing and new sites.

Third, much can be done to increase the productivity and ‘transition readiness’ of the wider freight network by further reforms to mass limits imposed on trucks, and increasing their access to more of the road network.

Reforms to increase general mass limits that are already underway could grow the economy by approximately $950 million.  

Freight firms are increasingly adopting new trucking configurations that improve productivity while otherwise being equivalent to existing models, but these so-called Performance Based Standard vehicles face onerous approval processes. Governments should streamline approvals to further promote the uptake of these high productivity vehicles and road managers must be encouraged to support as-of-right access for PBS vehicles where it is safe to do so.

Such reforms will directly improve productivity of the freight task – this will make supply chains more efficient while also reducing the need for diesel and the emissions intensity of freight delivered.

Access should also be improved for heavy electric vehicles to account for the fact that they are typically heavier than diesel equivalents, due to the additional weight of battery systems. Operators currently face a ‘payload penalty' – that is, reduced freight capacity within existing mass limits – which can limit early uptake. We are suggesting that these limits be relaxed and made more consistent across jurisdictions, to facilitate continued adoption of heavy EVs and the related innovation in freight networks.  

Every litre of diesel saved by our heavy vehicle fleet means less emissions and fewer particulates. A more productive and electrified supply chain also means less demand for liquid fuel and greater resilience. With some modest reforms, Australian policymakers can shift our freight sector into a higher gear.