The Australian Trucking Association, the ATA, and the Electric Vehicle Council or the EVC have urged faster policy reforms to accelerate Australia's transition to zero-emissions trucking. This is in response to the shortage of AdBlue.
Australian Truckers Respond to AdBlue Shortage
The ATA and the EVC have teamed up on a document titled "Electric Trucks: Keeping Shelves Stocked in a Net-Zero World."
The document calls for the local government to launch incentive programs and legislation that is more friendly to electric vehicles to accelerate their switch to electric trucks.
This will prevent them from having to deal with the consequences of the AdBlue shortage, according to Electreck.
The document results from numerous panels and workshops that enlisted 50 stakeholders in the country. In those meetings, they identified the policy environment, the lack of charging stations, the limited availability of electric trucks, the limited awareness of consumers, and the restrictive design rules in the country as the barriers to the transition.
Only 14 electric commercial truck models are currently available in Australia out of 58 electric commercial truck models that are available around the world, according to ABC.
What is AdBlue
AdBlue is the brand name of a diesel exhaust fluid or DEF mandated for trucks in Australia back in 2011. It plays a vital role in cleaning up the emissions of modern diesel engines.
AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust system of the vehicle. It then mixes with the exhaust fumes of the vehicle, and it reacts with the nitrogen oxide gas or NOx and breaks it down into water vapor and nitrogen.
AdBlue is very important, but there has been some consequence of creating rock-solid emissions controls into diesel trucks, and that is that they won't work without AdBlue.
That is by design, as safeguards have been created into the control systems that run the trucks to prevent tampering with the truck's DEF system. For more than 10 years, the system worked.
AdBlue has added costs to the trucking operators and companies, but its goal of curbing nitrous oxide emissions was deemed successful, and the added costs were manageable.
However, in 2021, the price of AdBlue has increased rapidly and it even reached to an all-time high in the last three months of last year, according to The Conversation.
Since urea, the main material of AdBlue, is also used in agricultural fertilizers, China is keeping it to itself in a bid to keep its food prices at an affordable price. China is the country that produces chemical.
That means that there is no longer enough chemical to make AdBlue that trucking companies have come to depend on to keep operating.
Also, the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and the panic buying of the consumers over the last few years have highlighted the importance of the freight sector in keeping businesses like pharmacies and supermarkets running, while the fast growth in online shopping has resulted in an increased dependence on delivery vans, many of which are still powered by diesel, especially the ones in Australia.
Australia has been working on zero emissions for years now. The country has phased out the use of coal in order to save Australia's economy.
In November 2021, Tesla worked with an Australian University to create an EV battery.
Related Article: Tesla's 2021 Deliveries Increased by 87% Compared to 2020! What to Expect This 2022
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Written by Sophie Webster
