If the transition of the trucking industry is going to take place then the best way to stimulate the process would be if the governments, both State and Federal, introduced schemes and incentives making moving over to electric trucks easier.

This video illustrates the simplicity of the process when there is a government grant involved for International buyers in the US. The customer, US Air Condition Distributors, can make a successful transition to electric and make a positive impact on its business with a little government help. It could be as simple as this in Australia.

The US has a series of initiatives which make life easier. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contains significant new funding for EV charging stations. The US Dept of Transport (USDOT) programs include the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program (US$5 billion) and the Discretionary Grant Program for Charging and Fuelling Infrastructure (US$2.5 billion). The law also makes the installation of EV charging infrastructure an eligible expense under the USDOT Surface Transportation Block Grant formula program.

Another initiative offers a US$7,500 tax credit for new EVs, half of which if the vehicle is made with domestic battery and half if the vehicle is made with domestic critical minerals.

Another tax break creates a 30 per cent credit for electric and other non-diesel trucks and 15 per cent for combustion vehicles with a battery of at least 15 kWh. The credit is capped at US$40,000 or the incremental cost of the vehicle, whichever is lower.

For battery makers there are manufacturing production credits including US$35 per kilowatt hour of capacity for battery cells. Meanwhile battery modules could qualify for a credit of US$10 per kilowatt hour of capacity (or $45 in the case of a battery module which does not use battery cells), and 10 percent of the costs incurred for critical minerals and electrode active materials.

This is just a sample of the kind of help the US governments are giving to stimulate the swap over to electric and other technologies. How many are there in the Australia for the trucking industry? There is, as the Americans say, ‘zip’.