We’re Spending $10 Billion on Fuel Stockpiles. We Could Have Electrified Australian Freight Instead

I sat down with Dan Bleakley from New Energy Transport, and this conversation hit different. This wasn’t a chat about the distant future of electric trucks. It was a warning about right now.

Dan made the case that Australia is sleepwalking into a fuel crisis. There is a massive hole in global oil supply, somewhere between 9 and 13 million barrels short every single day. That gap is not closing anytime soon. Some analysts say it could take until 2030 to recover. Meanwhile, Australia carries just 30 days of fuel reserves. Our food supply, our farms, our freight network … all of it runs on diesel.

The numbers Dan shared about the trucking industry surprised me. Most people picture Toll or Linfox when they think of road freight. But those big names make up less than 2% of trucks on the road. Over 90% of trucking companies have fewer than 20 staff. Half are owner-operators. These are small businesses with thin margins, locked into buying cheap trucks and then spending a fortune on diesel for years. It’s a trap.

Electric trucks change that equation, but the upfront cost is steep. A new electric prime mover runs between $400,000 and $500,000, roughly double a diesel equivalent. The difference is what happens after. Dan described a Canberra run where his truck saved around 84% on energy costs compared to diesel. Over ten years, a diesel operator might spend $2 million on fuel alone. Electric flips that model entirely.

The performance surprised me too. On a trial run from Picton to Beresfield and back (about 480 kilometres on a single charge) Dan’s 36-tonne truck saved 40 minutes compared to a diesel. The driver actually got pulled into a weighbridge because operators couldn’t believe a truck was averaging 98 kilometres per hour up hills. They thought something dodgy was going on.

Dan also laid out some ideas for getting small operators over the upfront cost barrier. The conversation got into whether the government’s diesel rebate is actually making the problem worse by subsidising the old system. Some of what was proposed is genuinely bold.

Watch the full video. There’s a lot more detail in there than I can fit here, hopefully some of it will make you angry in a productive way.