Australia’s freight decarbonisation challenge is often framed as a problem of vehicles: when will electric trucks be ready, how far can they travel, and whether operators can make the numbers work.
But for eLumina chief executive Lisa Marsh, the bigger question is more basic: where are those trucks supposed to charge?
Speaking on the Commercial Disco(very) podcast after appearing at the Freight Forward conference at Parliament House, Ms Marsh said transport operators are not opposed to electrification. They are opposed to uncertainty.
“Truck operators don’t really care how the trucks work,” Ms Marsh said. “They need confidence that they can continue running their businesses.”
eLumina Global, established almost three years ago, specialises in battery-backed EV charging infrastructure. Its systems are designed for places where the grid is weak, unstable or unavailable altogether – a common problem in the parts of Australia where long-distance freight and regional travel are most difficult to electrify.
The company’s charging systems can be deployed with biodiesel generators, ground-mounted solar or wind for off-grid applications. They can also be connected to low-capacity grid supply, drawing a small amount of power into the battery before delivering much faster charging to vehicles.
“You could trickle-feed power from the grid into the battery at 40 kilowatts, but still achieve charging outputs of up to 400 kilowatts,” Ms Marsh said.
“So if a small delivery truck turns up, it can charge at 400 kilowatts while only putting 40 kilowatts of pressure on the grid. That’s where it’s different – it’s grid-friendly or off-grid charging infrastructure.”
The model is designed to avoid one of the major bottlenecks in Australia’s energy transition: the time and cost involved in upgrading grid connections before charging infrastructure can be installed.
Ms Marsh said many proposed truck-charging hubs could take years because they require major grid upgrades. By contrast, eLumina’s portable systems can be deployed quickly and scaled over time.
That has already been tested in Western Australia, where eLumina has electrified the Great Northern Highway, a 3,200 kilometre route from Perth to the Pilbara.
The current network is designed for 160 kilowatt charging, enough for passenger vehicles and smaller delivery vehicles, but not yet sufficient for heavy trucks. Ms Marsh said the point is not to wait for the perfect end-state before beginning.
“If we can get adoption of EVs and small delivery vehicles along that highway, then the economics start to work,” she said. “We can scale by adding more batteries, more ground-mounted solar, and eventually infrastructure for heavy trucks.
“We don’t have to wait for perfect conditions. We just need to start moving forward.”
For freight operators, the shift is still primarily commercial. Ms Marsh said the sector supports lower emissions, but not at any cost.
“They’re willing to buy the truck and the charger, but not if it costs more than operating a diesel truck,” she said. “They’re absolutely on board with sustainability and reducing emissions, but it can’t come at the detriment of cost because that flows through to everyday Australians through food, pharmaceuticals and other essentials.
“So everyone is on board philosophically – it’s become more of an economic question around how we make it happen.”
The answer, she said, is charging infrastructure. Without it, operators will not have the confidence to invest in electric trucks.
“When I speak to the transport industry, many of them say: ‘Lisa, when we bought our diesel trucks, we didn’t buy a petrol station’,” Ms Marsh said.
“So we need either government investment or private investment into charging infrastructure to give the transport industry confidence that they can transition without disrupting their core operations.”
That need is becoming more urgent as the freight sector confronts not only decarbonisation, but fuel price volatility, global supply chain instability and energy security risks.
Ms Marsh said the transition is often made to sound more complex than it is. She explained that petrol stations already operate as distributed energy points, with fuel delivered by truck and stored in large underground tanks. Electric charging infrastructure can be thought of in similar terms, with batteries replacing one form of stored energy with another.
“We’re just replacing one energy source with another, but there needs to be a hybrid model during the transition,” she said.
“Maybe a couple of bowsers become electric while others stay petrol. Then, as more electric trucks come online, we gradually phase out more fossil fuel infrastructure.”
The international comparison is stark. Ms Marsh pointed to China, where around 100,000 heavy electric trucks were sold last year, supported by about 330,000 fast charging stations. Australia, by comparison, has around 220 fast chargers nationally and sold 66 heavy haulage electric trucks.
While the scale is completely different, Ms Marsh said the ratio between charging infrastructure and truck sales is similar.
“There’s a direct correlation there: the more charging infrastructure you build, the more trucks you’ll sell,” she said.
Australia’s regulatory settings also remain a barrier. Rules designed around diesel trucks do not always fit electric trucks, while development approvals can slow the installation of charging infrastructure.
Ms Marsh said eLumina’s systems can often avoid lengthy development approval processes because they are portable rather than permanently fixed to the ground. That portability also means they can be moved once permanent infrastructure is installed.
The technology is also being used by a growing range of electric truck manufacturers. Ms Marsh said Windrose, DeepWay, SANY and Volvo had all used eLumina charging infrastructure.
But she said the tone of industry discussions had shifted. Rather than waiting for megawatt charging or perfect economics, more operators are now asking how to begin.
“Previously, people were saying things like, ‘Your charger might not be fast enough,’ or, ‘We need megawatt charging.’ Everyone was searching for perfect conditions,” she said.
“But today, the conversation feels different. It’s become: ‘How do we make this work now? How do we take one step in the right direction and build from there?’”
The Great Northern Highway project has also had an unexpected community impact.
eLumina established revenue-sharing agreements with roadhouses along the route, giving small regional businesses a new way to attract travellers and participate in the clean transport transition.
Ms Marsh said many of the communities along the route had never seen an electric vehicle before the project. Since the network launched, two local residents have ordered EVs.
“That might not sound like a lot, but these are communities that had never even seen an EV before,” she said.
One of those buyers is Monica in Cue, a tiny community in Western Australia’s Mid West. Another resident in Payne’s Find has also bought a Tesla.
“That’s a real achievement,” Ms Marsh said.
eLumina is now planning two further regional projects. One would connect Adelaide to Perth across 15 sites along the Eyre Highway. The other is a regional New South Wales network of 30 charging sites, backed by letters of support from local small businesses.
For Ms Marsh, the infrastructure challenge is solvable. The more difficult question is whether Australia moves quickly enough to give industry the confidence to act.
“You won’t get trucks without charging infrastructure because transport operators will simply say, ‘Where do I charge? I can’t run my business’,” she said.
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