In a bid to achieve its broader sustainability strategy, the City of Newcastle has recently unveiled its first electric truck.
The vehicle, which is a medium rigid Hino truck, will replace the diesel engine vehicle currently being used by the Council’s Parks and Recreation team.
It is expected to reduce the council’s carbon emissions by more than 20 tonnes each year.
“City of Newcastle was the first council in NSW to shift to 100 per cent renewable energy in our operations, with our own solar farm at Summerhill and a power purchase agreement with the Sapphire Wind Farm,” said Deputy Lord Mayor Declan.
“Fossil-based liquid fuels such as diesel and unleaded petrol in CN cars, trucks, waste fleet, plant and equipment account for more than 90 per cent of our remaining operational carbon emissions.”
This move is part of the City of Newcastle’s Climate Action Plan 2021-2025 which includes a Fleet Transition plan targeting 100 percent zero emissions of their fleet by 2030. As Previously, they have replaced four pool cars with equivalent full-electric passenger vehicles.
Newcastle will also be participating in the NSW Government’s announced Drive Electric NSW EV fleets incentive to support the transition of its passenger fleet.
It is currently developing council-owned public electric vehicle charging network. This includes seven chargers across four sites with 11 charging bays with more sites being planned to be built in 2022.
