Cement Australia debuts first electric cement truck

Cement Australia has made its first delivery in New South Wales using its new Janus JE410 truck, which is believed to be the first fully manufactured electric Class A truck in Australia. The truck was originally purchased as a Kenworth T410 Glider but was converted by Janus Electric into a battery electric vehicle. The fuel tanks have been replaced by exchangeable batteries, which provide 620kWh in total, along with an electric blower discharge that works off the battery.

According to Blair Price, general manager, Supply Chain & Logistics, at Cement Australia, the company purchases around 20 Kenworth models a year and decided to have one of them electrically converted to help contribute towards the cement and concrete industry’s net zero concrete 2050 ambitions.

“We’re traditional Kenworth customers, so we basically decided to have one of our normal trucks converted so that the transition for our drivers into a new bit of kit would be easier,” Mr Price told Prime Mover magazine. “It’s effectively just a standard T410 Kenworth without the driveline. We’ve only just taken delivery of it, so we’ll run the wheels on it for the next 12 months and then be able to put key performance indicators (KPI) up against our normal diesel ones.”