SEA Electric has announced that it will be doubling the size of its local assembly facility taking its annual production capacity to a potential annual rate of more than 2000 electric trucks.
The company says it will see its current production facility expand to around 8000 square metre square on a total site of 15,000 square metres, giving it the capacity to produce eight trucks per day, or up to 2,080 units per annum it claims.
SEA Electric was founded in 2012 and released its first electric commercial products in 2017, while last year it launched its range of medium and heavy-duty electric cab chassis models, distributed and supported by an extensive dealership network. all of which are Hino dealers.
The expansion of SEA’s production, along with the rumoured interruption in supply of Hino’s internal combustion engine trucks, could see SEA’s shared dealer network scrambling for electric trucks where no diesels are available from Hino.
SEA’s founder and global CEO, Tony Fairweather says he doesn’t believe Australia needs to search the world to attract EV manufacturers.
“SEA Electric is proud to be a global leader in commercial eMobility technology, homegrown here in Victoria,” said Fairweather.
“Since launching our new range last year, we have attracted incredible interest from a wide cross-section of leading companies and government bodies, who seek to improve their environmental sustainability, despite a lack of policy and incentives to fuel growth in the sector on these shores,” he said.
“The recent change of Federal Government and the subsequent increase in EV activity, has provided SEA Electric with renewed confidence that appropriate policy and incentives maybe close. There are many examples of successful policy in EV progressive countries such as the US that we should simply emulate.
“Despite Australian passenger car production wrapping up in 2017, we still have vibrant engineering, development, and manufacturing capabilities, of which we should be proud.”
SEA Electric says its existing facility, has for the past 12 months, enjoyed the benefits of a 100kW rooftop solar array, which has produced 129MWh of energy to date, with 86MWh being exported back to the power grid.
The company says that all told, the system has ensured that the site is approximately 60 per cent carbon positive, in other words, it produces 60 per cent more energy than it consumes.
The company added that as a cornerstone of the new energy ecosystem, in future, it will utilise the batteries within vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functional trucks on-site, where the trucks could provide power grid stability by feeding energy back at times of peak demand or grid disruption.
SEA Electric adds that its local range of SEA Electric badged trucks, including the SEA 300 EV and the SEA 500 EV, are available in a range of models from 4.5t GVM vehicles capable of being driven on a car licence, through to 22.5t three-axle rigid trucks.
The company added that final applications for the products include dry and refrigerated freight, side, front and rear refuse trucks, tilt trays, work trucks and elevated work platforms amongst others, with the company recently launching Australia’s first airport refuelling EV truck.
