AUSTRALIA’S largest fleet of battery-electric trucks has started with electric fleet specialist Zenobe buying almost 150 units to transport groceries for Woolworths in five states.

The trigger for the battery-electric truck (BET) fleet has been the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which this week committed up to $22 million to support the deployment of the trucks through Zenobe Australia for use in Woolworths’ last-mile delivery network.

The deployment of the 148 BETs – all Foton T5 models – is expected to be among the largest electric truck fleet rollouts in Australia to date.   

The BETs will be leased to Woolworths for last mile delivery across New South Wales and Victoria, with additional vehicles in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.

The trucks will be leased to Woolworths with the full fleet rollout completed over the course of 2027.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) said that providing financial support for projects can accelerate the uptake of BETs and help build a secondary market for these vehicles, making them more accessible to other operators later.

CEFC head of infrastructure, Julia Hinwood

CEFC head of infrastructure Julia Hinwood said: “By increasing the uptake of BETs we’re helping develop the market to bring them closer to price parity with their non-electric counterparts”.

“This investment reflects the commercial viability of BETs and enables Zenobē to set competitive rentals to incentivise customers to lease BETs.

“Backing deployments in hard-to-abate sectors like freight helps normalise new technologies and bring in wider private investment.

“With fuel price volatility and supply risks increasingly material for freight operators, early large‑scale deployments are critical to generating the real‑world performance data and operating benchmarks needed to underpin a secondary market for electric heavy vehicles.”

Under the model, Zenobe retains ownership of the trucks, allowing Woolworths to deploy BETs during the lease term without taking on end-of-life risk. The model represents a ‘one-stop-shop’ for customers who take up the lease rental, inclusive of vehicle maintenance, warranties and upgrades.

Zenobe country director for Australia and New Zealand, Gareth Ridge

Zenobe country director for Australia and New Zealand, Gareth Ridge, said the Woolworths project was evidence that electrification was a commercial opportunity.

“Woolworths is already rolling out hundreds of electric trucks at scale, that’s almost unheard of in Australia’s freight sector and proof that with the right business model and competitive pricing from Zenobe, electrification stacks up right now,” he said.

“Together with Woolworths and the CEFC, we’re proving that large-scale zero-emissions logistics is no longer a pilot, it’s commercially viable and operationally proven.”

The CEFC said that the support to boost BET numbers was part of its broader focus on the decarbonisation of Australian transport. This is alongside commitments made in passenger vehicles, fleet electrification, and charging infrastructure.It said that transport accounts for 23 per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions and is on track to become the highest emitting sector by 2030 on a business as usual trajectory. 

Road freight activity is expected to grow by 35 per cent in 2025-2040, causing a 10 per cent increase in truck emissions.

By 2035, road transport is projected to make up 83 per cent of all transport emissions, the CEFC said. 

While passenger EV uptake continues to grow, the CEFC said heavy vehicles remained difficult to electrify because of higher upfront costs, infrastructure requirements and uncertainty around long-term asset values.

Australia’s uptake of BETs has been slow with electric models representing only 0.9 per cent of the 12,003 trucks and heavy vans sold in Australia so far this year.

The CEFC has, to March 31, 2026, directly committed more than $260 million in EV-related projects since inception to help decarbonise Australia’s transport sector.

These investments include accelerating Team Global Express’ fleet electrification, working with Volvo Group Australia to switch to medium and heavy-duty BETs and backing Australia’s first electrified bus fleet and depot, delivered by Zenobe. 

It has helped finance more than 20,000 EVs, exceeding $1.2 billion in value, including third-party capital through its co-finance programs.