City of Newcastle drives towards electric future

City of Newcastle's transition to a zero emissions fleet is powering forward with the unveiling of its first electric truck.

The medium rigid Hino truck is the only one of its kind in Newcastle and will replace a diesel vehicle currently being used by City of Newcastle's (CN) Parks and Recreation team, reducing CN's carbon emissions by more than 20 tonnes each year.

Deputy Lord Mayor Declan Clausen said the launch of the electric truck was part of a broader sustainability strategy that will deliver a 100% reduction in carbon emissions from CN vehicles during the next decade.

“City of Newcastle was the first council in NSW to shift to 100% renewable energy in our operations, with our own solar farm at Summerhill and a power purchase agreement with the Sapphire Wind Farm,” Cr Clausen said.

"Fossil-based liquid fuels such as diesel and unleaded petrol in CN cars, trucks, waste fleet, plant and equipment account for more than 90% of our remaining operational carbon emissions.

"This is produced from more than 1.6 million litres of fuel used annually across CN’s operations.

"City of Newcastle is working to deliver the adopted Climate Action Plan 2021-2025, which sets out a roadmap for achieving emission reduction within CN operations. This includes the development of a Fleet Transition Plan to target zero emissions from vehicles for 100% of the fleet by 2030.

The launch of the electric truck follows previous trials of electric vehicles within CN's fleet, including the replacement of four pool cars with equivalent full electric passenger vehicles.

City of Newcastle will be participating in the NSW Government's recently announced Drive Electric NSW EV fleets incentive, which will help support the transition of its passenger fleet.

City of Newcastle is helping to support the community's transition to electric vehicles as well with the development of a council-owned public electric vehicle charging network. This currently includes seven chargers installed across four sites, which provide 11 charging bays, with additional sites planned to be built this year.