Electric truck and commercial vehicle company, Foton Mobility says that it is on track to deliver 200 electric light duty trucks this year and is targeting 1500 new electric. Commercial vehicles in 2025.
Foton Mobility’s head of light duty product lines , Bill Gillespie told T&B News in a briefing this week that the company has inked deals for electric trucks with some major blue chip customers, including Woolworths, Bunnings, Ausgrid, Kings Transport, APT and ANC and will be looking to expand its electric van range to include medium duty models as well as vans.
He added that the brand has fielded many serious and targeted enquiries from local councils, statutory authorities and governments also keen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“We have an electric tipper option that really appeals to councils and government authorities,” Gillespie explained.
Gillespie told us that the company has also signed some new and significant dealer groups which he says will help expand the brands sales reach across the country.
“We have signed a very significant dealer group which will operate Foton Mobility dealerships in Perth, Brisbane, Hoxton Park in Western Sydney, Queanbeyan in the Canberra region and Beresfield in Newcastle and along with new models which will expand our range, we believe we will present a pretty compelling option for companies looking to decarbonise their transport fleets,” Gillespie said.
The Foton Mobility executive said that the company is China’s leading commercial vehicle and truck brand and will deliver more than 150,000 electric trucks in 2024 and plans to deliver more than 300,000 zero emission trucks and vans by 2030.
Gillespie said that as well as battery electric trucks Foton has a range of hydrogen fuel cell powered commercial trucks and buses that it will bring to market in Australia over the next few years.
“We will have a nine tonne battery electric truck available here in Australia by Q3 2024 and we will have an 18 tonne medium duty truck here by the second half of next year,” Gillespie told us.
“We will also have a range of Foton electric vans on sale in Australia in 2025,” Gillespie added.
“We plan to deliver around 480 electric trucks by the end of 2024 and our forward forecast for 2025 will see us deliver about 1500 trucks in 2025, which we believe will make us the biggest selling electric truck brand in Australia,” he said.
Gillespie admitted that one of the biggest restrictions will be having trucks completed at local body builders and the ability to actually deliver completed trucks, which is a problem for all truck manufacturers, but he believes the company has many of these bases covered.
However he said that the company’s 8-year/300,000km battery warranty has attracted a lot of interest from companies as has the lower overall purchase price for the Foton trucks.
“I think our overall proposition speaks for itself and that is being illustrated with the large orders we are writing for electric trucks for major fleets like Woolworths,” Gillespie said.
