Transport & Trucking Australia

The past month has seen us diving in at the very deep end of future trucking technology with the opportunity to head overseas and get the chance to see and drive some of the latest zero emission trucks from MercedesBenz and Volvo. Those stories will be in the next issue of Transport & Trucking Australia but for now let us tell you, we are standing on the threshold of the most exciting era of automotive development we have ever seen on this planet, since Karl Benz first did away with the horse. There are many challenges of course, and it won't be an easy road, however anyone who doubts that electricity will be powering most of our trucks by the time we are mid-way through the next decade is deluding…

ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE highway 1 HINO SCANDAL CONTINUES / GRATTAN REPORT / NEW eCANTER REVELEALED / NEW AIR SUSPENSION ADVANCE HINO'STROUBLES with emissions data falsifications appear to have escalated, with the company announcing in Tokyo, that it will suspend shipments of light duty trucks, after confirming that the data falsification scandal also included those models, highlighting the deepening problems at the Toyota subsidiary. Hino president Satoshi Ogiso told a news conference that during a transport ministry investigation additional misconduct regarding emissions was found that affects more than 76,000 vehicles. The scandal, which came to light in March, was previously not believed to have impacted light duty trucks, a factor which saw Hino shares lose about 3.5 pert cent on the Nikkei, with parent…

SEA ELECTRIC in its statement underlined that it has developed a wide range of all-electric trucks, which have been “proven in the field with over two million kilometres of real-world use to date”. SEA Electric's founder and CEO, Tony Fairweather, who has recently been back in Australia for the EV Summit in Canberra, noted that the plan by the Grattan Institute could in fact go further and meet the already accepted baselines set elsewhere around the world. “At SEA Electric we commend the work by the Grattan Institute in highlighting the very real issues which face the transport industry, and wider society in Australia today,” said Fairweather. “Across the world, there are jurisdictions which have led the way with introducing guidelines for transport manufacturers and fleets to adhere to. “For…

ALL THE LATEST NEW AND VIEWS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE highway 1 HINO SCANDAL CONTINUES / GRATTAN REPORT / NEW eCANTER REVELEALED / NEW AIR SUSPENSION ADVANCE A REPORT BY THINK TANK, the Grattan Institute, has called for a ban on highly polluting diesel trucks that are more than 20 years for heavily populated urban areas particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. The report published by the independent think tank says that trucks more than 20 years old should be banned from Sydney and Melbourne, under a proposal that calls for moves to slash toxic emissions and spur the uptake of electric vehicles in our cities. The Grattan Institute says exhaust pipe pollutants from trucks kill more than 400 people annually and contribute to illnesses including lung cancer, strokes and asthma.…

ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE highway 1 HINO SCANDAL CONTINUES / GRATTAN REPORT / NEW eCANTER REVELEALED / NEW AIR SUSPENSION ADVANCE FUSO HAS UNVEILED its next generation eCanter electric truck announcing a significantly expanded line-up of variants along with the adoption of an axle motor Fuso has been selling the eCanter in Japan as well as in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand progressively over the past five years and the company says it has used the operational feedback to developed the next generation eCanter, saying that the new model addresses more diverse logistics needs, adding that it will now launch the new truck in more markets around the world. Locally Daimler says that the new gen eCanter will have to undergo a…

MERCEDES-BENZ TRUCKS has announced it will begin validation trials for it all-electric eEconic specialist waste truck in Australia and New Zealand early next year. Mercedes says the truck has been designed from the ground-up to work in densely-populated areas, with excellent visibility, practicality and active safety features, and adding to those characteristics, will be the fact that the eEconic produces zero local emissions and that the powertrain will operate near-silently. the company says that three eEconic trucks will be part of a validation trial in Australia, while one will operate in New Zealand. Production of the ground-breaking eEconic began at the Mercedes-Benz Trucks mega factory at Würth in Germany recently. Mercedes-Benz Trucks Australia Pacific director, Andrew Assimo, says the Econic makes a lot of sense as an electric vehicle. “Waste…