Hybrid Electric Media Booklet

HINO HYBRID ELECTRIC MEDIA COVERAGE

Message from the President and CEO of Hino Motor Sales Australia

The shift toward low-emission transport is no longer something on the horizon – it is here today. Every operator, large or small, is now looking for practical solutions that reduce their environmental impact while maintaining the performance, capability, and dependability their business relies on.

At Hino, we are proud to have led this conversation in Australia for more than 18 years. As the only manufacturer offering a Hybrid Electric light-duty truck, we have proven that innovation and practicality can go hand in hand. Our Hybrid Electric range delivers up to 22%* in fuel savings and emissions reductions without the need for recharging or compromise on range – a solution that works in the real world, not just on paper.

What makes our Hybrid Electric offering unique is the strength of Toyota Group technology, combined with Hino’s deep understanding of how Australian businesses operate. This is engineering that is versatile, with an extensive model line-up designed to suit a wide variety of industries. It is technology that is proven, and equipped with our Hino SmartSafe package as standard – because safety is just as important as sustainability.

This booklet reflects not just what we say about our Hybrid Electric trucks, but what others are saying too – from customers who have seen the results in their day-to-day operations, to industry experts who have driven the trucks and evaluated everything from performance to sustainability. Their stories underline why Hybrid Electric is the right solution for today, and a smart step towards the future.

DRIVING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE WITH THE HINO HYBRID ELECTRIC

The future of transport is rapidly changing. Around the world, urbanisation, resource scarcity and growing environmental pressures are reshaping how people and goods move. Australia is no exception. The Federal Government has committed to ambitious targets, including net zero emissions by 2030, and businesses across the nation are seeking practical solutions that balance efficiency, cost and sustainability.

Hino is playing a leading role in addressing these challenges and our commitment extends across the entire lifecycle of the vehicle, from production to operation, with a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 90%. This means not only producing more efficient engines, but also advancing next-generation technologies including Hybrid Electric, Plug-in Hybrid, Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric vehicles.

Importantly, Hino Australia has a solution that has been leading the way in low-emissions for over 18 years. The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric is a proven performer. Customers benefit from up to 22% in fuel savings, reduced maintenance, and reductions in CO2 emissions, with no compromise on range or performance.

Hino’s pedigree in hybrid technology is unmatched. From the world’s first hybrid commercial vehicle in 1991, to the long-running success of the Toyota Prius, to Australia’s only Hybrid Electric light-duty truck meeting Euro 6 standards, Hino continues to set the benchmark for innovation and reliability.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric range is more than just a step forward in technology, it’s a smarter way to do business. By delivering lower operating costs, reducing environmental impact and supporting Australia’s sustainability goals, the Hino Hybrid Electric gives operators a genuine competitive advantage.

Richard Emery President & CEO

Hino Motor Sales Australia

HERE IS WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE TO SAY THE HINO HYBRID ELECTRIC EFFICIENCY TEST

The true measure of success is not just in engineering or emissions data – it’s in how Hino Hybrid Electric performs in the real world. From diverse industries and day-to-day operations, the feedback has been clear: The Hino Hybrid Electric is helping businesses lower costs, improve efficiency, and advance their sustainability goals. Here’s what our operators are experiencing firsthand.

While it is early days, we are already seeing 20-25 per cent improvement in fuel consumption, which correlates to a reduction in CO2 emissions. The addition of Hino Hybrid Electrics is the small but significant stepping stone in the evolution of our fleet.”

Evert Verhage, Fleet Manager, Charles Sturt Council

For me, morally, it’s more about reduced emissions. We burn a lot of diesel and create a lot of emissions through the work that we do in our industry and we are very conscious of that.”

Paul Davison, Managing Director, Davisons Earthmovers

“ “ “ “ “

Over the last 24 months, we have tracked fuel on our Hybrid Electric and Diesel equivalent 300 Series trucks and have noted a 10 to 15% difference in fuel consumption – this is an immediate cost saving for the business, and also means a reduction in our CO2 emissions.”

Brendan Cannon, Group Fleet & Utilisation Manager, Altus Traffic

Looking at the numbers, hybrids are much more manageable and the Total Cost of Ownership gap is almost nothing. It’s not as simple as saying we’ll take ten EVs because we must consider what’s required to support them, and their range capability.”

Daniel McEvedy, National Fleet and Logistics Manager, Alsco Uniforms

The price of hybrids has come down a lot , with hybrids versus the normal (diesel) truck price, so pretty much from our point of view we can start getting savings straight away with these.”

Melinda Uhlmann, Asset Manager, CNW

The introduction of Hybrid Electric trucks to our fleet brings a positive impact on the environment and ensures cost savings for SIXT customers, especially during times of high-interest rates and cost-of-living pressures.”

Murari Rijal, Franchise Owner, SIXT

To prove the real-world efficiency of the Hino Hybrid Electric, we put it to the test at Mount Panorama in Bathurst. Over a 295km course designed to replicate the conditions of a local delivery operation, two Hybrid Electric trucks were evaluated in parallel with their diesel equivalents. With all trucks loaded to 4.5 tonnes and driven by nine drivers of varying experience levels, Hino-Connect telematics captured the performance data and evaluated accordingly. The results speak for themselves.

“

Most would think of a hybrid as being only suited to the stop/start conditions of urban traffic but this is not the case. The system works equally as well in hilly terrain, where the slopes will feed power back into the battery.”

“ “ “

“During the four or so hours of our trip the diesel Hino consumed 15.7 litres of fuel while the Hybrid only used 11.5 litres. That’s 4.2 litres/28.95 per cent less.”

More precise measurement from the onboard electronics brings the result to 6.329km/L for the diesel versus 8.265km/L for the hybrid. This is a reduction in fuel burn of 30.58 per cent.”

“By day’s end the Hino hybrid’s fuel figures made for impressive reading. The diesel had consumed 21.2 litres… while the 616 hybrid was down to 16.9 litres.”

““Across 142km of driving… the diesel model used 13.6L/100km. This equates to a 21.2 per cent fuel efficiency improvement across the day, exceeding Hino’s official claim of 20 per cent.”

“

“In a truck, torque is your best friend and the benefits of the hybrid system were obvious when climbing an incline. The diesel engine was able to purr at low RPM while the hybrid system did the heavy lifting.”

Australia’s leading trucking journalists have independently put the Hino Hybrid Electric to the test. From fuel savings and lower emissions to comfort, performance and drivability, their feedback highlights the real-world advantages of Hybrid Electric technology across a range of conditions.

Hino Hybrid a ‘real world’ green solution

HYBRID technology might seem like a fleeting option as the world hurtles toward a battery electric future, but for truckmaker Hino it is a long-term solution it has been refining since 2007, offering a compelling car-licence alternative to dual-cab utes for tradies and fleet operators.

Using proven Toyota Group technology for its parallel hybrid system, the Hino 300 Series Hybrid is claimed to deliver fuel consumption and emissions reductions of up to 20 per cent –which GoAuto recently put to the test in Sydney – as well as reduced maintenance costs.

Unlike many hybrid passenger cars that downsize engine capacity, Hino kept the full-size diesel engine for its working truck models to help ensure a long working life and understressed powertrain.

An electric motor is sandwiched between the clutch and gearbox, working in parallel with the diesel engine to offer assistance that leads to improved efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

The N04C four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, combined with the electric motor, produces 111kW and 470Nm with maximum torque developed from as low as 1200rpm.

All hybrid Hino models are coupled to a six-speed automated manual transmission (AMT) that is slower swapping cogs than a traditional automatic, but familiar to truck drivers. If added operator control is required, the AMT can be manually overridden.

How does this translate into reduced running costs? After our back-to-back test drive of diesel and hybrid Hino 300 trucks, the team at Hino HQ was forthcoming in sharing the drive data from the on-board telematics and our expectations

were exceeded. In an age of inflated fuel-use claims and exaggerated range numbers, Hino has clearly erred on the side of caution.

Across 142km of driving (loaded), during which the diesel 300 trailed the Hybrid 300, we returned a fuel use figure of 11.1 litres per 100km. By comparison, the diesel model used 13.6L/100km.

This equates to a 21.2 per cent fuel efficiency improvement across the day, exceeding Hino’s official claim of 20 per cent. A typical driver would travel twice as far as we did in a day, so the savings would be significant across, say, a year.

Hino Australia product strategy manager, Daniel Petrovski told GoAuto that 300 hybrid customers can “reduce yearly maintenance costs by up to 16 per cent” compared with the diesel equivalent.

Using the electric motor as a starter motor and alternator allin-one contributes to these savings because these ancillaries do eventually fail on traditional trucks, and the regenerative braking goes a long way to preserving brake pads.

Based on our efficiency saving across the day, when factoring in an average of 45,000km driven each year and an average diesel cost of $2 per litre, the hybrid offers a $2147 fuel bill saving, while also emitting 2877kg less CO2 than its dieselonly sibling.

The monthly fuel cost saving alone is $179, which coupled with Hino’s claimed lower maintenance costs and the reduced CO2 emissions, the hybrid 300 could be a compelling option for those considering a greener truck.

However, at a list price of $74,209 for the hybrid 300 we drove and $57,574 for the equivalent diesel model (both before on-road costs), the electrified option comes at a premium of $16,635.

This does not appear to be dissuading customers, though. Around 700 Hino hybrids are on Australian roads at present but Mr Petrovski told GoAuto that the company already has 300 orders so far this year compared to an average of 50 in

previous years.

“By the end of the year, there will be over 1000 on the road and that will get to 1500 pretty quickly,” he said.

As fuel prices continue to climb, the light truck end of town s becoming more aware of the dollars they throw at diesel.

While battery electric vehicles (BEV) are likely to be the future of light- and medium-duty commercial vehicles, Hino says the hybrid 300 is the best bridging solution for “right now” without any of the driving range limitations present with BEVs.

The latest generation 300 also scores Hino’s full suite of SmartSafe safety technology with pre-collision system, pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, and more.

Earlier this year, Hino bolstered the 300 Series range with ‘Built to Go’ models, essentially offering a pre-built range of genuine body types including various factory-backed tipper and tray body options.

The Hybrid 300 TradeAce wide-cab model we drove was fitted with a genuine Hino aluminium tray, ladder racks and a bullbar, optioned with a 4495kg GVM allowing it to be driven with a car licence. The sticker price on one of these is $74,209 before on-road costs, or similar to a high-end dual-cab 4x4 ute.

Depending on application, the Hybrid 300 Series range can be optioned with up to an 8500kg GVM, but the 4495kg GVM model we tested still offers a healthy 1945kg payload –eclipsing that of popular 4x4 dual-cab utes.

“The introduction of the new alloy tray and TradeAce Built to Go models to our Hybrid Electric range offers customers a high quality, cost effective and versatile drive-away solution that can reduce business operating costs from day one,” said Mr Petrovski.

So how does the hybrid drive compared to its diesel 300 Series stablemate?

Driving impressions

We spent quite a lot of time in the outgoing Hybrid 300 Series in 2019, which impressed us with its frugal fuel use and simple operation.

In 2020, Hino introduced the new model with a range of functional upgrades like a six-speed AMT, revised hybrid system operation and more safety tech. Let’s see how it compares.

Leaving Hino’s head office in Caringbah with exactly one tonne of sand in the tray, we navigated heavy traffic before reaching the motorway and bound for the Eastern Suburbs to test the Hybrid on a drive route indicative of typical trade use.

The six-speed transmission offers a lower first gear and taller sixth compared with the old model’s five-speed unit, which

improves performance from a standstill as well as at highway speeds.

During stop-start driving the truck will also now accelerate, under light throttle, off the mark using electric power only. Once required, the clutch couples the diesel motor to the driveline and it awakens from idle.

We experimented with how far we could get on electric-only power, reaching 20-30km/h before the diesel came into play. The transition was pretty seamless but noticeable in how quiet it is off the line.

This is a new feature, which in urban stop-start driving offers an efficient take-off that contributes to the improved fuel economy. The stop-start engine shutoff helps too, and the electric motor both doubles as a starter motor and replaces the alternator.

What remains the same across model generations we’ve tested, is that during normal driving the engine really lugs; operating at such low revolutions it feels like it’s about to stall. That’s normal, though, because the electric motor is busy helping the diesel engine propel the Hybrid 300.

Another fuel-saving feature that feels a little unusual at first, is the coast function that disengages the clutch when coasting – effectively dropping into ‘angel gear’ – instantly reengaging when power is required.

The little 300 feels better on the highway than it ever has, probably due to the taller sixth gear and coast function, with a quiet and comfortable cabin.

It really shines in urban environments though, where it lugs around sipping less diesel but without a noticeable compromise – in fact the torque spread is even better than a diesel-only 300 Series.

Once you’ve got your head around the differences in driving behaviour, with things like the coast function, low operating RPM, and electric-only take-off, it’s an enjoyable truck to be in.

We didn’t manually shift the AMT at any point across the day, even when climbing the hills out around Vaucluse or accelerating onto the motorway uphill. It’s a well sorted driveline that does what it says on the box.

A Tale of Two Technologies

A real world comparison between diesel-hybrid and current diesel technologies produces some impressive results.

The concept is simple: take two Hino 300 Series 616 TradeAce trucks, fit them up with realistic simulated loads on their Ready to Go alloy trays, and operate them on the same route for the best part of a day and compare the numbers recorded by a Hybrid and a current spec diesel.

The 616 TradeAce is powered by a 4.0-litre 150hp (110kW) diesel engine driving through a 6-speed Allison automatic transmission.

Of course, it’s impossible to drive two trucks at once so we take the lead in the Hybrid while a Hino staffer pilots the diesel version and stays close behind us.

The planned route takes us on what could, definitely, be a realistic delivery run around Sydney with simulated dropoffs at such iconic locations as the Canterbury Racecourse, Sydney Fish Markets, Barangaroo, and Woolloomooloo as well as the loading docks at well-known hardware chains and shopping centres.

The HinoConnect telematics program is utilised to accurately measure the fuel consumption of both vehicles. Remember, same load and same route at the same time of day (we were actually nose-to-tail for much of it) so same traffic conditions.

It could be argued that the only potential variable could be different driving styles, but this is mostly negated by travelling

so close together and the results for both vehicles show no harsh braking or acceleration incidents.

The Hino Hybrid uses a parallel electric diesel design and a Toyota Group nickel metal hydride battery, which has been used in over 15 million hybrid vehicles worldwide.

The Hybrid’s 4.0 litre four-cylinder diesel engine is supplemented by an upgraded electric motor coupled to the front of the six-speed automated manual transmission, which in itself is an upgrade over the previous model’s five-speed AMT.

Along the way Hino experimented with a fully automatic transmission but found that fuel efficiency suffered so went back to automated manuals for production hybrid trucks.

The box has a very low first gear and double overdrive ratios meaning hill starts are easy and cruising at 100 km/hr is done at around 2,000 engine rpm. On take-off, the electric motor initiates the drive momentum and once moving the clutch engages smoothly to tap into the power from the diesel.

A bonus for maintenance costs is this set-up results in a substantial reduction in clutch component wear as the clutch only has to match speed between the motor and the engine rather than take the strain of the initial take off.

Once moving, as the transmission upshifts the electric motor delivers some of its power immediately before the clutch reengages to further smooth out torque delivery.

The electric motor also functions as the starter motor for the diesel engine, saving weight and maintenance and it also operates as the vehicle’s alternator for both powering electricals such as lights and the multi-media system, in addition to recharging the main battery and the conventional 12-volt battery.

would operate the engine brake on a diesel-only Hino 300.

Even around town the regenerative braking is very effective and will extend the life of brake components such as pads and rotors. The stop-start system minimises inefficient idling time and we soon become quite adept at anticipating traffic light changes and taking our foot off the brake pedal just as our light is about to change to green.

This restarts the diesel with the brakes automatically remaining held by the Hill Hold function, keeping the truck stationary until the accelerator pedal is depressed.

The 300 Series Hybrid was its fastest growing model for the year, helped along with the introduction of the new Alloy Tray and TradeAce Built to Go models to the Hybrid Electric range and can be ordered fitted with a Hino Genuine aluminium tray, ladder racks and a Hino Genuine alloy bullbar on Wide Cab models or an alloy nudge bar on Standard Cab units. As with other Hino Hybrid Electric trucks, the new Built to Go models include the comprehensive Hino SmartSafe safety package with advanced driver-assist technology including Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS).

This is in addition to Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), reverse camera, dual SRS airbags, and four-wheel disc brakes.

Hino announced in 2022 it would be pursuing a renewed focus on the Hybrid and has revised the way it presents the Hybrid equation to customers.

“It used to be how long to pay back the premium,” says Hino Australia’s Department Manager – Product Strategy Daniel Petrovski.

“But customers are not buying like that anymore and the payback needs to be on a cash flow basis and at the end of, say, a five-year finance arrangement they also need to have more cash in their pockets with a Hybrid than if they’d bought a diesel.”

Currently the Hino Hybrid has a premium over the diesel of just over $16,000 based on the list price of each truck. Hino has developed a Return on Investment calculator which allows the input of a number of variables including annual kilometres travelled and the current and predicted cost of diesel fuel.

Hino is being realistic in presenting hybrid-diesel trucks as a solution to emissions issues.

There will be Battery Electric Vehicles, there will be Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and there will be Hybrids. Larger vehicles and long distances do not suit current BEV technology and Australia will require extended ranges for many applications.

from day one.

It’s widely acknowledged that the cost of diesel is unlikely to go down, and although this exercise used the then current retail diesel price of $2.00 per litre, as the price at the bowser goes up the Hino Hybrid presents an even better business case.

During the four or so hours of our trip the diesel Hino consumed 15.7 litres of fuel while the Hybrid only used 11.5 litres. That’s 4.2 litres/28.95 per cent less.

Examined on the typical km/litre metric, this converts to 6.13 km/litre from the Hybrid and 8.63 km/litre for the diesel model. Extrapolated over a theoretical 12 months travel of 48,500 kilometres, the savings are a remarkable $2,973 based on $2.00 per litre.

Take it out to 5 years/240,000 kilometres and the Hybrid’s savings amount to $14,868 without taking into account the reduction in maintenance costs associated with operating a Hybrid. And the planet receives a bonus as well.

Using the same input numbers the Hybrid emits 511 kgs less CO² per month than the equivalent diesel, or 6,137 kgs less per year.

OK, so here’s the disclaimer: environmental benefits and operational savings will vary according to each application, but we are left in no doubt that the Hybrid’s performance capabilities closely match those of its sister diesel equivalent on what we consider a realistic and balanced test exercise.

Regenerative braking and battery charging can be maximised by using the wand located on the steering column which

But in the meantime, smaller vehicles performing metropolitan tasks, similar to this typical stop-start multi-drop exercise, can be contributing to the operator’s bottom line

CNW pursues hybrid fleet focus

determines whether we replace a truck or not.

“We run a bit of a traffic light system, so if it’s running a low average service cost then it stays but once it gets up into the orange – that’s when we look at replacing it.

“The plan is to replace them with Hino Hybrids as they reach end of life,” she said.

While it’s too early for CNW to report on real-world fuel savings or emissions reductions for its Hino 300 Hybrid trucks, the company is focused on the future benefits of hybridising its fleet.

“The fuel saving and the CO2 savings are where we see the benefits for the company and we do certainly see future benefits for the company based on our analysis,” CNW Chief Executive, Simon Baynes said.

next five years, Ms Uhlmann says it is likely to consist mostly of hybrid vehicles – but she didn’t rule out the addition of BEVs.

“I definitely see the hybrid being our main truck purchase, because even when we need the larger truck they’ve now got that larger truck, because we get around that 8.5-tonne GVM as well,” she said.

“So from our point of view we can pretty much keep rolling Hybrids out right now as a business.”

The company hopes to add more true hybrid utes to its light vehicle fleet, too, with just one 48v mild hybrid Toyota HiLux added so far.

“Hopefully one day we get something in the ute space, so that we can get more hybrids into the fleet because we are heavily light vehicle based as well,” Ms Uhlmann said.

“We purchased one hybrid HiLux but it only really runs the accessories, so it’s just 48 volt.”

The sky’s the limit for CNW, as the company continues to grow in line with the rapid electrification of the modern world while also focusing on its approach to sustainability through fleet hybridisation.

“We’re always looking for growth and the industry is in pretty good shape, particularly the electrical industry with the electrification of the world and the massive opportunities there,” Mr Baynes said.

Family owned and operated electrical wholesaler CNW opened its doors in 1952 and, while the world has changed a lot across the last 72 years, the company has ridden the technology wave the entire way. Now, it turns its sights to emissions reduction across its fleet of around 200 vehicles.

CNW invited Fleet HV News to its Murarrie warehouse in Brisbane, as the team welcomed three new Hino 300 Hybrid trucks to its growing fleet of trucks – with plans to replace outgoing runners with hybrid models.

“The price of hybrids has come down a lot, with hybrids versus the normal (diesel) truck price, so pretty much from our point of view we can start getting savings straight away with these,” CNW Asset Manager, Melinda Uhlmann explained.

Across the existing fleet of trucks and utes, with Toyota and Hino making up the bulk of the units, a few standout models have proven perfect for the delivery work CNW undertakes in both metro and regional areas.

“They’re pretty much all Hino 300 Series trucks now and mostly the 616 model, but we do go to a 921 for the rural

regions where we have to go to mine sites,” Ms Uhlmann said.

“Over the years we’ve found Hino has had the best longevity for us, they’ve met our needs and we’ve got the relationships with the dealerships here.

“They go above and beyond when we need one about sourcing it and then they know our specs really well – it just makes purchasing easy for us.

“We get good resale too, especially in the market at the moment!”

The fleet approach at CNW is to run vehicles until maintenance costs start to creep, taking a calculated approach to replacement, with outgoing vehicles likely to be replaced by hybrid models into the future.

“We run a lean fleet and our owner’s motto is that if we can run the vehicle and keep it in good working order then we get the longevity benefits,” Ms Uhlmann said.

“So we run a ‘cost analysis versus kilometres’ structure that

Despite being an electrical wholesaler, which happens to also sell electric vehicle chargers, CNW is set on hybrid vehicles at this stage based on the amount of rural kilometres they clock.

“I think the infrastructure needs to catch up a bit with the electric, because we do have a lot of remote locations and we would need to stop and charge, whereas with the hybrid you’ve got flexibility and then you can do long kilometres in them,” Ms Uhlmann said.

Ms Uhlmann’s advice for fleets considering a hybrid truck, perhaps due to range and residual value concerns associated with a dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV), is to give it a go.

“I think it’s worth having a go with hybrids, even if you only get one or two for a couple of years to see what difference they make,” she said.

“From our point of view, when the cost became similar and we could also see benefits in fuel savings and co2 reductions, it made sense for us to go that way.”

When asked where she sees the fleet heading across the

“At CNW Electrical Wholesale, sustainability serves as a foundational principle guiding our every decision and our unwavering commitment to the community drives us to pave the way towards a clearer, more sustainable world.”

Decarbonisation gap bridged by hybrids: Hino

Hino Australia pushes hybrid trucks as stepping stone on decarbonisation journey

HINO Australia continues its 300 Series diesel-electric hybrid push amid a widespread electrification focus sweeping the transport industry, including hopes to expand its range with the Japan-only 700 Series Hybrid.

While Hino does offer its light-duty Dutro Z-EV electric truck in Japan, which has been in production for more than a year, the Australian arm is focused on its hybrid offerings.

Hino Australia president and CEO Richard Emery sat down with GoAuto to discuss the truck-maker’s hybrid focus as it aims to offer a bridging solution to decarbonisation of the road transport industry.

“We had clients who had said to us last year, ‘nope, we’re looking at buying some battery-electric trucks, we don’t think hybrid-electric’,” Mr Emery said.

“They’re now coming back and discussing it with us again.”

Mr Emery says the truck-maker saw strong interest in electric trucks at a dealer level last year, but the interest is beginning to shift back to hybrids as a mid-term solution.

“Everyone was buying an electric truck, but all they were doing was buying one or two to trial or test,” he said.

“A year later, they’re saying, ‘right, we’ve got that in place now, but for us as a truck business making wholesale changes to our fleet across to electric is probably five years away’.

“So they can keep buying diesels, slow down the rotation of trucks, or re-look at hybrid-electrics.”

The truck market shift, Mr Emery says, mimics the cooling seen across the passenger battery electric vehicle (BEV) market as later-to-adopt consumers question practicality, purchase price and, of course, residual value.

In fact, hybrid car sales were up 195 per cent year-on-year in April, while BEVs sales experienced a five per cent yearon-year slide in the same month to represent the first yearon-year monthly dip in more than three years.

“I think you’ve seen that in the general electric car area globally because there’s been a bit of a softening, not in demand but in focus of interest,” said Mr Emery.

“And of course, the truck industry was always a little bit

sceptical about application and range and weight.

“They knew they’d need to look at it and trial some trucks to see how it works, but obviously with the costs of electric trucks and all of the compromises, it kind of felt to us like last year it was rampant.”

Mr Emery highlighted that while the car market has achieved a penetration rate of 10 per cent for electric vehicles, the road transport industry operates on weight and compromises are not quite as easy to make.

“We think there is a glass ceiling on the transition to battery electric between now and 2030, because I just can’t see how the industry is going to pick up more than 10 per cent,” he said.

“If you think about how many trucks that is, that’s a lot of trucks to go into the industry that need to be charged and are compromised on range and weight and things like that.

“The industry is not ready to make that shift, not just in terms of what they purchase but how they run their businesses.”

Hino Australia believes the solution, at least in the interim,

is hybrid solutions like its 300 Series Hybrid and the Japanonly 700 Series Hybrid that the firm is pushing to bring Down Under and which Mr Emery revealed is “certainly now on the table”.

“We’ve said to our dealers, talk to your clients about how they’re going to transition their fleet across the next ten years because that’s how long it’s going to take – maybe longer,” Mr Emery said.

“So, we think hybrid electric has a five-year window, where guys might say, ‘10 per cent of our trucks are going to move across to battery electric, but we can’t justify the expense and the compromises to go beyond that, so let’s put another 10 or 20 per cent of our fleet to hybrid electric’

The rhetoric at Hino Australia is that the hybrid models offer a stepping stone in the electrification journey, complementing battery electric options, which Mr Emery sums up with an analogy.

“I told one of our dealers that if we’re trying to cross a river, to transition the fleet as we need to do, at the moment stakeholders and shareholders and boards are asking fleet managers to go the whole way in one jump – and some are going to fall into the river,” he said.

“If we can be the stepping stone in the middle of the river to allow them to have a crack, to start to make the jump to battery electric easier if it’s still two years from now or three years from now.

“The people jumping the whole way across are also doing it with immense amounts of government money and it’s not sustainable”

Refrigerate After Opening

PETER WHITE

Paving the way to green solutions, Scully RSV is introducing its first hybrid-electric refrigerated solution – via Hino – to the local market.

Known for its innovative craftmanship, Scully RSV is providing customers a solution to help them transition to lower emission heavy vehicles without having to compromise on performance.

The journey to refrigerated hybrid truck-builds began when long-standing customer Rum City Foods asked for a greener transport solution.

However, according to Andrew McKenzie, CEO of Scully RSV, fabrication of a hybrid truck isn’t as easily replicated the same as it is on a standard diesel-driven truck.

“They’ve got batteries, they’ve got smart electrical systems, so you must be able to isolate those systems before you can start to weld and apply electric current to those vehicles,” he says.

“So, it’s important that we’re aware of those circumstances and those situations. Our experience and our investment in our engineering resource allows us to capitalise.”

As well as having 30 years manufacturing experience, several factors contribute to the businesses success in building such models.

Live feedback from trucks already in their fleet, according to Andrew, plays a vital role in the developmental process.

“We’ve got that in depth experience of having 400 trucks in our

rental fleet,” he says.

“Every single day, we’re getting live feedback on how they operate, how they work, what potential failure modes exist within the products. We develop the product off the back of that. That’s how we do it.”

The benefits for Rum City Foods are twofold as Andrew describes the impact this will have not only for Scott McIntyre, Rum City Foods Sales Manager, but also for the business.

The smart electrical systems are isolated prior to fabrication. “He gets to start to learn, develop and understand a little bit more about what operating electric trucks looks like in his fleet but still has the ability and assurance that, at the end of the day, he’s got the diesel engine that he can get home if there is a particular issue,” Andrew says.

“He runs long distances in North Queensland, and so full electric doesn’t yet work for him, so the hybrid solution is perfect.”

In fact, Rum City Foods was so impressed with the initial build it ordered a second Hino Hybrid-Electric refrigerated body manufactured by Scully before the first one was delivered.

Focused on bringing the project to fruition, Andrew emphasises how it is a collaborative effort between Scully RSV and Hino trucks.

With the fabricating process in full swing, they expect to deliver the complete truck body within two weeks.

“We’re quite literally working through with the engineering team at Hino down in Sydney in terms of the fabrication process associated with it at the moment,” he says.

“All the panel kits, doors, sliders, and steps are all sorted out. The parts are ordered, so we’re in the manufacturing phase now. Within the next two weeks, that will be popping out the

other side of the factory.”

Beyond manufacturing, Andrew also highlights the process that goes into producing and crafting such vehicles and how a dual thinking approach is essential to good product development.

“From a product available perspective, there’s really two schools,” he says. “There’s real world and then there’s theory. And so, you really need to take both approaches.”

Working with Queensland University of Technology and their customers, Andrew explains how the company adopts best practices.

“We still collaborate with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and utilise best practice, what’s new technology, what’s new thinking — trying to really get and tap into fresh minds and fresh ideas around best practices not just from a product perspective but from a manufacturing and systems perspective,” he says.

For Scully RSV, growth is now on the agenda, moving into a new 12,000m² facility in Brisbane late last year, Andrew reveals the company’s ambition towards building to record volumes.

“Today, we’re building at near record volumes and that will continue to grow in the coming weeks and months as we push towards building 60 a month,” he says.

“That’s ultimately the goal, and that’s the scale and the capacity of this factory here in Brisbane. Then we’ve got some options that are at play in some other regions.”

Since moving in six months ago, Scully RSV has gone through a number of iterations in terms of factory layout to optimise their processes.

“We’ve now reached a point where we’re comfortable and happy with our factory layout and its ability to consistently and reliably allow us to produce to time-bound production slots.” says Andrew.

“It’s unlocked the efficiency in our build and manufacture of the product.”

With no intention to slow down, the company remains focused on their customers and how the introduction of the Hino Hybrid-Electric trucks will ultimately help them on their journey to sustainable solutions.

“They will be available to our customers who want to start to dip their toe into the water in terms of what it means to genuinely take that step into the next phase of clean emissions vehicles,” he says.

“It’s exciting. We don’t want to hype it up and then under deliver, we’re more about actions and outcomes as an organisation. So, those vehicles will make their way into our fleet, and they will form a part of what we do as a good corporate citizen.”

Hybrid electric recovery truck to make debut at Supercars event

As part of its partnership with the Repco Supercars Championship, Hino Australia will debut this hybrid tilt tray this month. Image: Hino Australia

Hino Australia will debut a new 300 Series hybrid electric tilt tray recovery vehicle at the Sydney SuperNight event, being held from 19-21 July.

The truck will be fitted with a unique Kyokuto single car carrier body with a tilt tray slide that allows loading work to be performed at almost any angle down to zero degrees.

“The Kyokuto body is unique and relatively new to Australia – it has been selected as it meets the exacting operational requirements of Supercar races and will ensure the safe and prompt removal of crashed Supercars and other race cars,” said Richard Emery, president and CEO of Hino Australia.

“One of the major benefits of the tilt slide is that, once the tray is on the ground, loading can be done at a near zero degree angle and from the ground eliminating the risk of falling from heights.”

The quick removal of crashed cars is possible thanks to a one-handed, single button remote operation.

“As part of our long-term partnership with Supercars, we have provided a 500 Series standard cab recovery vehicle for the last five years. The 300 Series hybrid electric is a natural progression that ties in with Supercars sustainability strategy,” added Emery.

Supercars chief operating officer Tim Watsford says the truck is a welcome addition to the Supercars recovery fleet.

“This marks a significant step forward in our commitment to sustainability and efficiency,” he said.

“This addition to our fleet confirms a significant milestone for Supercars and we look forward to utilising their advanced features to ensure seamless recovery operations at our events.”

The hybrid electric and 500 series standard cab recovery vehicles will be in action at the Sydney, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Adelaide rounds of the 2024 Supercars Championship.

Hino reinforces commitment to Hybrid electric

FLEET HV NEWS TEAM 14 October 2024

Hino Australia has highlighted its dedication to advancing hybrid and electric trucks, setting priorities for 2024 and beyond. According to Hino Australia President & CEO Richard Emery, the focus will remain on the Euro 6-compliant 700 Series and 300 Series Hybrid Electric trucks.

“We will finish 2024 with a similar volume to last year, and our Euro 6 products… will remain our focus for the coming years,” Emery stated, underscoring the importance of these vehicles in Hino’s portfolio.

At a recent business briefing, Hino showcased its Hybrid Electric trucks in varied applications, demonstrating their adaptability. Among the featured vehicles was a Tilt Tray Recovery Vehicle, which is used at Supercars events. Another highlight was a council-specified tipper with an electric Power Take-Off (PTO), allowing it to function without the diesel engine.

This reflects Hino’s efforts to engage a broader market by showcasing hybrid capabilities in diverse environments, from council work to vehicle recovery.

Emery also emphasised the role of Hino’s Parts Distribution Centre in bolstering aftersales results and mentioned that the dealership network has expanded its service work bay

capacity by 17% in the past two years, including new Hino Hub satellite workshops.

Looking forward, Hino Australia is actively testing various lowemission technologies. Emery pointed out that the 300 Series Hybrid Electric trucks have been pivotal in reducing fuel consumption and emissions in Australia for over 15 years.

“They are the most appropriate solution for the current business and customer environment,” he said, noting Hino’s approach aligns with local needs.

To further prepare for Australia’s transition to electric vehicles, Hino plans to trial the 700 Series Hybrid Electric and the battery-electric Dutro Z-EV in 2025, evaluating their practicality and cost-effectiveness.

These trials will help ensure Hino’s electric options meet customer requirements when full-scale adoption becomes viable.

Hino on right track for transition to Euro 6

GRAHAM HARSANT

22 October, 2024

Richard Emery, president and CEO of Hino Australia, recently gave an update on the state of play for the business currently and moving forward, as the company transitions towards Euro 6.

Refreshingly honest, Richard spoke of the companies supply problems, particularly with their ‘Ready To Go’ range – as well as a stronger emphasis going forward on the Hino Hybrid Electric product, currently available in the 300 Series, and possible testing of the 700 Series Hybrid Electric (available in Japan) in Australia in 2025.

The Hybrid Electric demonstration fleet on display showed various applications that the company is honing in on in terms of where they think this propulsion form is at its best – the fleet to be used for drives and training with dealerships and customers going forward.

Using the famous Bathurst 1000 race weekend as a platform, Richard spoke about the company’s involvement in motorsport. For the same reason that journalists were keen to attend the weekend, the company uses their involvement as an attraction for customers and dealers who continue to be engaged in Supercars.

The company has been involved in the sport for a long time on a number of different levels. They are a major sponsor of the Supercar Championship itself including the iconic Hino Hub (technology) and the Recovery Team (safety), sponsoring the Toyota 86 Series and a partnership with Team 18 (performance).

The company believes that all these elements provide a great connection to the Hino brand. “These are all brand attributes fundamental to our business,” said Richard. “And we can execute and activate them with our relationship with supercars.”

In talking of the company’s market outlook and performance, Emery was candid in his comments.

“We have seen a softening of the market in the last six months after being on quite a strong run. That is probably manifesting itself mostly in the light segment while the corporate levels are still consistent and robust. Post-Covid government incentives pushed sales dramatically, causing supply chain issues. 2024 is settling back down due to some structural issues, supply and the market is coming back a bit.”

Hino sees problems in getting bodies built, and believes that key to any opportunities going forward is the OEM’s working to control and increase capacity of the finished product.

As an example, the time to build up a finished truck (trays, tippers,etc) has stretched out to an average of over 120 days currently whereas only a few years ago it was 90 days.

“We have many examples of customers having to wait six months or more for a body build slot and get a body put on a truck. So the local bodybuilding industry h as not been able to keep up and adjust to the surge that has occurred since Covid. Whilst settling down a bit it is still going to be a problem going forward and has put the company on the back foot.”

Hino believe they need to take greater control of the finished product, especially as – unlike many other manufacturers –they warrant the bodies on their trucks. Whilst the company does not receive a great number of warranty claims, the far larger proportion of these is related to these bodies, hence the company’s desire to be able to exercise greater control and influence in this area. “All the customer sees is a Hino. They don’t see the truck and the body as two separate

entities so it is obviously in our interest to ensure that the body supplied to our trucks are simply the best.

“Our bodybuilding industry in Australia is majority mum and dad, a shed and some welders. Hino build their tippers out of Kyoto in Japan and it is a production line like building a truck, with robots et cetera. We don’t have that scale in Australia and when we spoke to a lot of our bodybuilders with whom we have very good relationships they were reticent to commit to a bigger share because of staffing problems et cetera. So the capacity hasn’t grown to keep up with the demand.”

The company has invested heavily in their parts distribution business recently and has seen the impact the investment has had on the business over the past three or four years. This was a significant investment in the middle of Covid which doubled the capacity of their parts capability. Off the back of that, the company has seen the parts business increase by 40 per cent.

When supply of new vehicles was under severe pressure through 2021, 2022 and 2023, clients were keeping their old trucks longer to meet customer demands and Hino was able to supply the necessary parts and equipment to enable them to do so.

This led to pressure on work bay capacity and qualified staff – problems common to the trucking industry as a whole. Hino has worked with dealers to get more young people into the industry but it remains an issue, albeit slightly easing. These problems exist across bodybuilding and auxiliary industries that feed the company’s business.

Dealers have also invested some $50 million on their facilities since Covid, showing their faith in the company’s product.

Richard Emery went on to discuss the company’s sales projections for the future, predicting a drop from the current high 5000s to around the 4000 mark for 2025 due to the tooling up and introduction of Euro 6 vehicles

“Late next year Australia will move to Euro 6. In that transition will see a production gap between our Euro 5 offering and the incoming Euro 6 supply. This in itself is not unusual as you retool.

“We have been working through this with our dealers and customers and whilst not ideal we have managed to balance this approach and the challenge in terms of our conversations with dealers and customers.

“Beyond that, 300 series will also have a gap in availability although not as severe as the 500 series. Whilst the dealers are somewhat frustrated and disappointed they remain committed to our joint business despite this hiccup in 2026. A normal trading environment is expected to return in 2027.”

Hino is not ignoring full electric or BEV, having one on display at Bathurst for trucking journalists to get a first-hand look at. Image: Graham Harsant The company has two products which are already Euro 6,

these being the heavy duty 700 Series and the 300 Series Hybrid Electric. The company is concentrating on these two products over the next couple of years.

“We think there is significant growth opportunity in Hybrid Electric, and the 700 has never really hit its straps. Our supply line for the 700 series has been restrained over the last couple of years and that is now opening up. We will be working hard to increase sales well beyond the 500 or so per annum that we are currently moving.”

Hino believes that sales of 1000 plus for both the 700 Series and 300 Series Hybrid Electric are eminently achievable. Hybrid Electric is a no-brainer in that whilst requiring a greater outlay of capital (approximately $16,000), the benefits in terms of fuel saving and greater power far outweigh cost and relatively minor weight penalties

Customers that would not look at Hybrid Electric a year ago are now coming to Hino with renewed interest. Given the consistently high price of diesel, the only surprise is that they didn’t investigate earlier. Adding to their confidence should be parent company, Toyota’s solid reputation in the field of hybrid electric.

In further news Hino have announced that with the Euro six change the company will move totally to two-pedal operation, deleting manual transmissions as an option. They will also be rationalising the range, reducing product variants from 164 to 99. The 700 Series will go against the trend, increasing that range from 18 to 29 models.

A new (for Australia) in-house 12 speed AMT gear box will also be offered for the first time on various products.

Hino is not ignoring full electric or BEV, having one on display at Bathurst. However the company sees huge market advantage in being able to provide Hybrid Electric vehicles with their attendant benefits as a method of transitioning.

As the only player in this field at this time, Hino would have to be in the box seat to capitalise on a unique but proven product.

Hitching the Hino wagon to Hybrid - Toyota’s truck brand explains its reticence to embrace battery electric.

Hino has declared that it will continue to hitch its wagon to hybrid drivelines as the industry battles to reduce carbon emissions.

Speaking with Australian truck journalists at a recent media briefing, Hino Australia boss Richard Emery said the company would ramp up its commitment to Hybrid technology both with the 300 series light duty models, which are already available here and with its flagship 700 Series heavy duty models, that are yet to be released with hybrid drivelines here.

Emery said customer trials of 700 Series hybrids should start in the New Year, with the heavy duty hybrid already on sale and working in its native Japan.

Emery believes that sales of the 300 Series Hybrid could be significantly increased from its current rate of around 300 units per annum and has challenged his team to increase the number of 300 Series hybrids to around 1000 a year.

“You’ve already seen us ramp up on our commitment towards hybrid electric, so we want to really concentrate on

these two products over the next two years.”

“We still think there’s significant growth opportunity in hybrid electric anyway, and 700 Series has never really hit its tracks.”

Emery has signalled the desire to bring the heavy duty hybrids down under, with the Japanese based, Toyota controlled truck maker still a way off having a major footprint in the battery electric ecosphere or in having a viable full battery electric truck solution.

The Hino would not be drawn on the well documented Toyota claims that solid state batteries will be the real game changer in zero emission vehicle power, when they are predicted to come to market around 2028. It is fair to say that both Toyota and Hino’s apparent tardiness in introducing or embracing pure electric models may well be linked to solid state battery innovation may have a lot to do with the arrival of the new tech.

Toyota has predicted that solid state batteries should double range and halve charging times, making battery electric

vehicles far more viable than they are at the moment.

Before that however, Emery says that hybrids are the most practical and realistic solution for everyday truck operators, particularly for fleets seeking to reduce emissions, but not ready to spend the added investment required for full battery electric and the challenges that come with that including charging and range limitations.

For the past year or so Hino has tried a subtle rebrand for its hybrid technology, calling them Hybrid Electric Trucks, however nothing can be taken away from the fact that the prime source of power for these trucks is the diesel internal combustion engine they run.

Emery emphasised that 70 per cent of electrified vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles in the Australian market are hybrids.

“When we look at our sales history we were kicking along the bottom there about 25 sales a year, and in 2022 that went up to 72 on a 75 vehicle target. Last year, we sold 220 on a target of 250, this year we’re up over 350 in terms of order intake, so in terms of what our plan was for hybrid, we’re on that pathway for that 1000 hybrids a year.”

Emery said the company is being very realistic about the approach to the transition that’s going to happen over the next couple of years, adding that the overall situation has multiple layers and solutions.

“I know we we have copped some criticism, along with Toyota, as part of that family of companies, that we have had our heads in the sand on the matter of battery electric vehicles,” Emery admitted.

“However, just like Toyota, we can take exception to that, because we’ve had hybrid trucks reducing consumption emissions in Australia for 15 years or so, and we are ramping up our marketing and volume as we see them as a unique offering with real world benefits now within the markets coming our way,” Emery said.

The Hino boss said the company continues to invest in all of the zero emission technologies whether it is hybrid, battery electric or hydrogen fuel cells.

“No doubt the move to ZEV and the move to hydrogen fuel cell will accelerate and our business continues to invest in all those things and we’ll have fits and starts, and there’ll be surges where, whether it be because of incentives or whatever else primes the market, make no mistake, when that tipping point comes, we expect that we’ll Hino will be at the forefront of that because we’re part of our biggest automotive group in the World,” said Emery.

“For now however, our job is to offer the best all round solutions for the current business and customer environment, and at the moment that is ICE and hybrid electric,”

“Hino with Toyota continues to trial our solutions for improved technology, not just on ICE engines, but with hybrid electric,

battery electric and fuel cell drivetrains investments that together run into billions, and we have trial programs in Japan on all of these technologies,” Emery added.

Hino proved that it is not excluding current tech battery electric trucks. On hand for the media to inspect at the briefing in the city of Orange in central Western NSW was a Hino Dutro Z-EV van. The light duty Japanese spec battery electric truck based on a Dutro or 300 Series platform was fitted with a ‘van style’ with low flat floors wide opening side and back doors and a walk through capability. Although we didn’t have the opportunity to drive the Dutro, it presented a potential new niche for Hino, not only in body design but in zero emission potential.

Emery did confirm however that the Dutro Z-EV is being tested and trialled in Australia in an effort to better understand the technology and how it can be improved for our conditions. He didn’t give any indication of when such a truck might find it’s way on to Hino showroom floors.

Emery also indicated that the relationship the company has had with battery electric conversion and engineering operation, SEA Electric was still in existence but although he didn’t annunciate it, the tenor of the comments indicated that it was possibly not in great health.

SEA Electric was sold to a Canadian venture capital company earlier this year and while there have been discussions about Hino continuing to sell the ‘knock down roller kits’ to SEA for fitment of electric drivelines, it is clear the relationship is not in a strong position.

“We have had discussions with the new owners but I am not sure about the long term future of the SEA operation in Australia,” Emery told T&B News.

“The SEA Electric trucks are sold under their compliance plate, not a Hino plate, Hino sells the CKD kits to SEA and they have a relationship with Hino dealers to sell their electric trucks,” he said.

“SEA has an ongoing relationship with Hino in North America which helps them meet strict requirements in states like California but I am not sure about the long term future of that operation, time will tell,” he said.

To demonstrate Emery’s point about the usability and versatility of the Hino Hybrid truck chassis the company showcased a hybrid tilt tray Hino at the Bathurst 1000 across the same weekend it was briefing the truck media in Orange.

Similarly the company showed off a truck that it said ideally met the needs of local councils, with a Hybrid tipper fitted with an electric PTO (power take-off), which allows the operator to power the tipper without the diesel engine running, reducing emissions when the vehicle is stationary but working.

The Future of Fleet Sustainability: Hino’s Hybrid Electric Trucks

In the annual business briefing late last year, Richard Emery, President and CEO of Hino Australia, and Daniel Petrovski, Department Manager for Product Strategy at Hino Australia, laid out a transformative vision for the future of fleet management. They emphasised the critical role hybrid electric trucks will play in reducing emissions, cutting fuel costs, and serving as a stepping stone toward battery electric trucks (BEVs). Here’s why fleet operators should look to hybrid technology as a key component of their 2025 strategy.

The Case for Hybrid Electric Trucks

Hybrid electric trucks offer fleet operators an immediate and practical solution for lowering operational costs and reducing environmental impact. As Petrovski explained, “You’re getting up to 20% fuel savings and CO2 reductions, and those trucks are cheaper to operate for the customers.” This efficiency positions hybrids as a compelling alternative to traditional diesel vehicles, especially as regulatory pressures and costs associated with diesel engines increase.

Hino’s hybrid trucks are already making a significant impact in markets like Japan, where the 300 Series Hybrid has been well-received. Petrovski highlighted, “We’ve got thousands of Dutro ZEVs and hybrid trucks operating in Japan across diverse applications, from food co-ops to short-distance delivery fleets.”

Cost Comparisons: Hybrid vs Diesel vs Battery Electric

Cost is a pivotal consideration for fleet managers. Petrovski shared detailed insights into the cost analysis of diesel, hybrid, and battery electric trucks over five years and 240,000 kilometres of operation. “For a diesel truck, you’re looking at around $175,000 in total costs, including fuel, maintenance, and repayments. A hybrid reduces that to about $150,000,” he stated. This $25,000 saving is significant, especially when diesel prices are expected to rise due to Euro 6 emissions standards.

Hino’s approach to pricing further enhances the appeal of hybrid technology. Emery confirmed, “When we introduce Euro 6, there will be additional componentry and costs associated with diesel trucks. However, we’re putting a price freeze on hybrid electric trucks, making them increasingly attractive.”

Battery electric trucks, while promising in the long term,

remain cost-prohibitive for many operators today. Petrovski explained, “The purchase price of a battery electric truck is higher than the total costs of a diesel or hybrid electric truck over five years. Plus, you often need two electric trucks to do the job of one diesel or hybrid.”

Hybrid as a Stepping Stone

For many fleets, hybrid electric technology serves as a critical bridge toward full electrification. “Battery electric vehicles are great for lightweight, short-distance applications,” Petrovski noted. “But for anything requiring range beyond 100 kilometres or payloads over a tonne, hybrids are the solution.”

Hino’s hybrid trucks offer versatility across various applications. “We’re building fleets of hybrids tailored for different needs: council tippers, tilt trays, steel trays, plumbers’ trucks, and refrigerated vans,” Emery said. He also highlighted that hybrid trucks perform well not just in urban environments but also on country roads. “Our hybrids can intermittently operate at speeds of 80 to 90 kilometres per hour on electric power alone, delivering efficiency no matter the application.”

Addressing Common Misconceptions

Petrovski and Emery were candid about misconceptions surrounding hybrid technology. One prevailing myth is that hybrids are limited to urban delivery vans. “If there’s an application in the light-duty market, a hybrid can almost certainly fit the role,” Petrovski asserted.

Another misconception is the weight penalty of hybrid electric systems. Petrovski clarified, “A 300 series hybrid electric is actually about 75 kilograms lighter than its fivelitre diesel counterpart, offering efficiency without payload compromise.”

Market Adoption and Incentives

While hybrid electric trucks have been well-received in markets like Japan, adoption in Australia has been slower. This is partly due to a lack of incentives. “In Japan, hybrids make up a significant portion of sales,” Emery noted. “But in Australia, we’re doing it without any government incentives.”

Petrovski highlighted the importance of education and market readiness. “We’re investing in educating our sales teams and dealers about the applications where hybrid

technology excels,” he said. Hino is also showcasing the capabilities of its hybrid fleet through customer trials and real-world demonstrations.

Looking Ahead

As everyone returns to work in 2025, fleet operators face mounting pressures to reduce emissions and adapt to changing regulations. Hino’s hybrid electric trucks offer an immediate, cost-effective solution that bridges the gap to full electrification. With rising diesel prices and increasing environmental scrutiny, hybrid technology is poised to become an indispensable part of the fleet landscape.

In Emery’s words, “There will come a point where the gap between diesel and hybrid narrows, just as we’ve seen with Toyota’s passenger vehicles. At that crossover point, hybrids become the clear choice.”

For fleet managers seeking to future-proof their operations, the message from Hino is clear: the time to invest in hybrid electric trucks is now.

Hino hybrid electric delivers fuel savings for Altus

Australia’s largest provider of traffic services, Altus Traffic, continues to reduce its fuel bill and CO2 emissions courtesy of the adoption of Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electrics into its fleet.

“Our fleet comprises of over 600 trucks, which are a combination of Truck Mounted Attenuators (TMAs) and Drop Deck bodies,” said Brendan Cannon, Group Fleet & Utilisation Manager for Altus Traffic.

“By continuing to add Hino Hybrid Electric vehicles to our fleet, Altus benefits from a cost-effective, lower-emission, and driverfriendly truck that seamlessly integrates into our operations while reducing fuel expenses and environmental impact,” said Mr Cannon.

“Over the last 24 months, we have tracked fuel on our Hybrid Electric and Diesel equivalent 300 Series trucks and have noted a 10 to 15% difference in fuel consumption – this is an immediate cost saving for the business, and also means a reduction in our CO2 emissions,” said Mr Cannon.

“We have been purchasing Hybrid Electrics since 2008 and currently have over 14 on our fleet,” he continued.

“One of the benefits is that the hybrid drive system operates automatically to assist the diesel engine and reduces fuel consumption – this means we benefit from lower fuel costs without requiring anything additional from our drivers.

“Our drivers don’t really notice any difference driving the Hybrid Electric and enjoy its smooth handling, making it a seamless and user-friendly solution.”

Australia’s largest provider of traffic services, Altus Traffic, continues to reduce its fuel bill and CO2 emissions courtesy of the adoption of Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electrics into its fleet. Image courtesy of Hino.

The Hino Hybrid Electrics use a standard diesel pump meaning there are no refuelling issues, range restrictions or charging requirements.

“Another advantage is the regenerative braking which converts kinetic energy into stored battery power when the truck decelerates, and also acts as an auxiliary brake – this improves efficiency and increases the life of the brakes, reducing our maintenance costs.

“From a fleet management perspective, the high levels of safety features allow us to meet our OH&S requirements,” he said.

Like all Hino 300 Series 4×2 models, the Hybrid Electric models feature Hino SmartSafe, a comprehensive safety package with advanced driver-assist technology that takes an active focus in protecting the life of drivers, passengers and other road users.

Hino SmartSafe includes a Pre-Collision System with Autonomous Emergency Braking, Pedestrian Detection and Lane Departure Warning System, plus Vehicle Stability Control, reverse camera, dual SRS airbags, four-wheel disc brakes, UN ECE R-29 cab strength certified and easy start.

Altus Group is Australia and New Zealand’s largest provider of traffic management services operating across more than 60 locations and providing traffic control, traffic engineering, event management and training services.

Hino reinforces commitment to Hybrid electric

South Australia’s City of Charles Sturt continues to reduce its fuel bill and CO2 emissions courtesy of Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric trucks in its fleet.

“There are over 50 trucks in our fleet and we recently added five Hybrid Electrics, which will assist us to reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment,” said Evert Verhage, Fleet Manager for City of Charles Sturt.

“While it is early days, we are already seeing a significant fue saving which correlates to a reduction in CO2 emissions.

“The addition of Hino Hybrid Electrics is the small but significant stepping stone in the evolution of our fleet.

“The light-duty trucks are used by our teams to maintain more than 450 reserves and almost 500 hectares of open space across the City of Charles Sturt.

“The tray body is fitted with enclosed tool boxes and a Redarc charging system that allows for the easy recharging of battery power tools, as opposed to the previous two-stroke power tools.

The Hino Hybrid Electrics use a standard diesel pump meaning there are no refuelling issues, range restrictions or charging requirements.

Like all Hino 300 Series 4×2 models, the Hybrid Electric models feature Hino SmartSafe, a comprehensive safety package with advanced driver-assist technology that takes an active focus in protecting the life of drivers, passengers and other road users.

Hino SmartSafe includes a Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), plus Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), reverse camera, dual SRS airbags, four-wheel disc brakes, UN ECE R-29 cab strength certified and easy start.

The City of Charles Sturt is home to approximately 130,000 people from over 105 cultures and backgrounds, and is located to the west of the Central Business Distribute of Adelaide located between the city and the sea.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric range is available from Hino dealerships Australia-wide and includes the 616 Standard and Wide Cab 4.5 tonne GVM car-licensed models through to the 716 Wide Cab with a 6.5 tonne GVM and the 916 Wide Cab, which has a maximum GVM of 8 tonne.

Built to suit any industry, the versatile Hino Hybrid Electric offers a range of Built to Go models including Alloy Tray and TradeAce variants, or can be customised to any application, to meet the unique needs of any business.

“These features all contribute to our commitment to reduce emissions and look after our City for future generations.

“Our drivers are happy with the comfort, safety and features of the Hino Hybrid Electrics,” he concluded.

Hino trucks are renowned for their quality, durability and reliability so choosing Hino was an easy decision for City of Charles Sturt.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric range is available from Hino dealerships Australia-wide and includes the 616 Standard and Wide Cab 4.5 tonne GVM car-licensed models through to the 716 Wide Cab with a 6.5 tonne GVM and the 916 Wide Cab, which has a maximum GVM of 8 tonne.

Built to suit any industry, the versatile Hino Hybrid Electric offers a range of Built to Go models including Alloy Tray and TradeAce variants, or can be customised any application to meet the unique needs of any business.

How the market has developed for Hino

As a part of their recent briefing, Hino presented some of the figures surrounding their sales across 2024, looking back on how the market has developed over the past four years since the advent of the pandemic.

Looking at figures from October 2024, Hino had sold 4,193 trucks in Australia in the year to date, which was tracking extremely similarly to the 2023 figures.

While there was a boom in sales immediately following the pandemic, this is now starting to level out.

“We’ve certainly seen some softening of the market in the past six months after being on a strong run,” Hino Australia president and CEO Richard Emery says.

“That’s manifesting itself in the light segment, and at the discretionary level. Tradies, retail, mum and dad businesses that may have a ute and a handful of trucks.

“At the corporate level, they’re still consistent and robust. The market’s been running pretty strong post-COVID. It’s getting potentially back to a ‘normal’ level of units sold.

“There was an acceleration in 2017-18, settled back down in COVID, but then past 2020 there was a bit of catch-up on

the latent demand.”

Richard believes that many truck OEMs have almost hit a limit on how quickly they can get trucks out to customers with the supply challenges that the pandemic provided.

This is especially in consideration with the change in what Hino can now produce with Euro 6 emissions in mind. There’s an expectation for a drop off for sales from late 2025 until production on the 500 Series can continue.

“Most of us found it hard to keep up from a supply perspective,” Richard says.

“The industry has held the number back across 2022-23 because of those supply issues. Some of it is structural issues, some is supply, and some is the market cutting back a little bit.

“We think the market is banging up against a glass ceiling due a number of things including lack of supply, getting bodies built, shipping out of Japan and other markets as well. We are bullish about the market out to 2030.

“We believe OEMs are working to control and increase capacity to finish products, and that will break through that

ceiling. We’re basing our supply on getting a truck out in 90 days, but that’s blown down to 120 days. Some customers are waiting for bodies to be built for six to nine months.”

Richard sees an advantage for Hino in its parts and distribution centre.

When they aren’t able to produce as many new trucks for customers across 2025 and 2026, this will continue to offer a servicing option for customers with older fleets.

“Although we’ve talked about our investment in our parts and distribution centre in numerous occasions, we can’t stress how much it has impacted our businesses,” Richard says.

“It has doubled our capacity for our parts business. When supply of new vehicles was under pressure, clients were keeping their old trucks longer. We did see a surge in maintenance across COVID.”

Building bodies

One of the challenges that Hino has faced in recent years which has drawn out production times is delays in the supply of bodies.

While some are built out of Hino’s home country of Japan in factories with full production lines, much of the Australian body building industry is kept relatively local and smallscale.

Like many other OEMs, Hino is beholden to the capacity these body builders are able to supply.

“Our body building industry in Australia is majority mum and dad businesses,” Richard says.

“We build our tippers out of Kyoto in Japan. It is a production line. We don’t have that scale here. When we spoke to our bodybuilders, they said they didn’t want to commit to a bigger shed and they didn’t have staff.

“30 per cent of our supply line in Australia is already over an

120 day wait. It is certainly a structural issue that we have to work on. It’s in our interest, our dealer’s interest and our customer’s interest to get right.”

What is then done locally comes with significant logistical challenges.

“We have a heap of distribution challenges,” Hino Australia Manager of Product Strategy Daniel Petrovski says.

“We do plenty of alloy trays, but they’re all coming out of Sydney. We can’t do a deal with three different bodybuilders in three different states.

“There’s a balance of 120 days vs 60 days, what’s the cost against the freight task and the quality and warranty? Standard warranty has gone from three to five years, and we have the body included.”

With the greater production of the Hybrid Electric, Hino is also eyeing off the challenges that brings in the workshop.

Like other areas of the industry, workshop mechanics, and specifically those with expertise in working on electric vehicles, are in high demand.

“There’s a lot of pressure on workshop guys,” Richard says.

“It is on two fronts: work rate capacity, and qualified staff. We can’t get enough welders and skilled workers in the industry off the back of COVID.

“We’re working with dealers to get more apprenticeships. It’s a struggle to take on the truck industry as an apprenticeship. We’re also working with our dealers on bringing in technicians from the Philippines, South Africa and the UK.

“We want to build a really strong foundation at the back of our business. Building that robust ecosystem for Hino in Australia is what we’re focusing on at the moment.”

Hino doubles down on hybrid following production delay on certain models

While recent global emissions issues has caused Euro 6 model production to be delayed, Hino is focusing on its leading hybrid technology

Image: Hino Australia

Hino Australia has reiterated it will continue to focus on developing its hybrid electric truck models as it prepares for a delay in producing certain heavy vehicles for the local market.

With global emissions issues leading to a delay in the brand’s research and development process, there will be delays for the unveiling of Hino’s 300 and 500 Series Euro 6 compliant vehicles.

At a Darwin business briefing yesterday, Hino Australia president and CEO Richard Emery said the brand expects to deliver more than 5,000 units to local customers this year, matching its 2024 efforts.

After recently passing 150,000 unit sales in Australia, Emery expects Hino to experience a dip in sales in the next year as emissions issues globally has delayed Hino’s ability to deliver Euro 6 compliant vehicle models to the Australian market.

“In 2022, emissions issues put out engineering teams on the back foot and halted work on new projects as we had to re-test our previous models,” Emery says.

“We worked with our parent company Hino Motors globally

and Australian regulators to certify every model we have on sale, even ones that we no longer sell in the market. “That work finished late last year and was done without us having to halt the sales of our models.”

Emery says it’s important to note that all Hino products met certification requirements without needing a re-work. However, it delayed the brand’s ability to have vehicle updates ready for the arrival of ADR 80 in November this year that requires Euro 6 emissions standards to be implemented.

“In simple terms, we won’t meet the Euro 6 introduction timeline for some of our models,” he says.

“We ceased production of the 500 Series last year, and existing stock production is supported until the end of this year. Production won’t re-start until October next year on the Euro 6 model.”

There will also be a gap in production on the 300 Series model. In the meantime, Hino is turning its focus to technology that pre-dates any emissions issues in its hybrid electric space.

Hino’s hybrid electric technology was first launched in 2007, with the brand leading the way in this space in Australia for many years. With the technology also already meeting Euro 6 emissions compliance regulation and avoiding any supply issues, Hino is preparing to expand its hybrid capabilities.

“The continue focus is on our hybrid market – I make no apologies for continuing to concentrate on hybrid,” Emery says.

“Hybrid provides a perfect interim option – diesel powertrains will remain the pre-eminent solution in the Australian trucking industry beyond 2030, battery electric is and will be a key part of fleets and will emerge, while hydrogen will also play a role, but we believe hybrid electric will remain the only high volume, lower-emission truck in Australia over the next decade. Hino is currently the only manufacturer to offer one.”

Emery says Hino is the only brand in Australia that is currently working on all of these drivetrain solutions through Hino Motors, having started trials for a heavy-duty Profia (700 Series) hydrogen truck more than two years ago.

“As our competitors begin to offer diesel options that meet Euro 6 emissions compliance (like our Hybrid Electric does), the gap in monthly lease payments between hybrid and diesel will continue to decrease,” he says.

“Furthermore, interest is increasing in 2025 – at the end of May, we were at 71 per cent of the total Hybrid Electric deliveries in 2024.

“Our recent fuel efficiency test around the iconic Mt

Panorama circuit and surrounding streets of Bathurst replicated the conditions of a local delivery operation – almost 300 kilometres of testing showed fuel savings of up to 24 per cent in Wide Cab variants and 22 per cent in Standard Cab, which reinforces our customers’ expectations.”

Emery says there’s a sweet spot that currently exists for hybrid electric truck customers.

“The balance between cost, range, payload, maintenance and resale are all critical measures when determining which technology works for any application – increasingly, a Hybrid Electric hits that sweet spot while also reducing emissions,” he says.

Planning for the medium-term future, Hino Australia is currently undertaking customer trials with light-duty Dutro (300 Series) Z-EV (Zero Emission Vehicle) to determine their feasibility in the Australian market.

“This will ensure that when the time comes in Australia for full-scale electric vehicles, Hino will have a product that meets our customers’ needs and specifications,” Emery says.

Hino looks to future with Hybrid Electric

Following the recent announcement of its Japanese merger with Fuso, Hino Australia says that its Hybrid Electric will continue to be a key part of its lower emissions strategy

Speaking at a business briefing in Darwin, Hino Australia President and CEO Richard Emery was emphatic about the Japanese manufacturer’s direction to emissions reduction through low and zero emission vehicles.

“Diesel powertrains in trucks will remain the pre-eminent solution in the Australian trucking industry beyond 2030,” Emery says.

“We believe Hybrid Electric will remain the only high volume, lower-emission truck in Australia over the next decade, and Hino is currently the only manufacturer to offer one.

“Battery electric will be a key part of the future fleet in Australia in certain applications, while hydrogen will also be a factor in the next decade, probably in long haul applications to begin with.”

Hino believes it is in a unique position compared to other truck manufacturers in Australia, currently delivering three

powertrains in diesel, hybrid and electric.

Emery says the Hybrid Electric is increasing in popularity among Hino customers across a greater range of applications with 31 per cent of last year’s Hybrid Electric deliveries received by first-time Hybrid Electric customers.

“As our competitors begin to offer diesel options that meet Euro 6 emissions compliance (like our Hybrid Electric does), the gap in monthly lease payments between hybrid and diesel will continue to decrease,” he says.

“Furthermore, interest is increasing in 2025 – at the end of May, we were at 71 per cent of the total Hybrid Electric deliveries in 2024.

“The balance between cost, range, payload, maintenance and resale are all critical measures when determining which technology works for any application – increasingly, a Hybrid Electric hits that sweet spot while also reducing emissions.”

Hino on right track for transition to Euro 6

GEOFF MIDDLETON

26 June, 2025

Speaking to the Australian trucking media in Darwin recently, Hino Australia President and CEO Richard Emery suggested that Hino’s success with the 300 Series could lead to a hybrid 700 Series.

“Diesel powertrains in trucks will remain the pre-eminent solution in the Australian trucking industry beyond 2030,” he said.

“We believe Hybrid Electric will remain the only high volume, lower-emission truck in Australia over the next decade.”

Pushed on whether we would see larger trucks like the 700 Series using the Hino hybrid powertrain, Emery said he’d love to see it.

However, he said it came down to resources in Japan: “Once again, we’re having to prioritise what’s important to us in terms of engineering resources in Japan. Obviously, we want 300 (Euro 6) done quickly, 500 (Euro 6) done quickly. The truth is, there is a priority list.”

But it seems likely that a hybrid 700 Series is not far down that list.

“Yes, it’s what we want to do,” Emery said. “We have customers who are interested in 700 Series Hybrid, but conventional diesel in Euro 6 form is a priority for us at the moment.”

Speaking at the same event, Hino’s Daniel Petrovski, Department Manager – Product Strategy, delved even further into the Hino trucks of the future.

“For bigger, heavier vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles would be the way of the future for that area because of the energy density of hydrogen fuel versus battery electric, and that energy density is something like 100 times more in a kilo of hydrogen than in a kilo of batteries. It’s a simple calculation. Payload is king with operators,” Petrovski said.

“BEV has a place in those short-haul operations where payload is not as critical. And hybrid electric can play right across that range.

“Diesel will be here for a long time, 2030 and beyond, (in) 2050 we’ll still have diesel trucks. Will they be assisted by hybrid? In most cases, yes. They’ll have some type of

electrification; that’s our road map out to 2050.”

Petrovski said BEV makes sense in Japan where most of the 300 Series Dutro electric vans are doing around 50 kilometres per day.

“In fact, our parent company HML can’t get enough Dutros to satisfy the market,” he said.

“It also makes sense in Japan where they have a great electrical infrastructure. They have nuclear, and that’s a green solution for the BEVs, whereas we’re pumping coal electricity into our BEVs so there’s no environmental benefit in this market versus Japan.”

Obviously, if operators could get a prime mover with a hybrid powertrain like that in the 300 Series, there could be a big fuel saving.

Independent comparison tests have shown that in the 300 Series, fuel savings of better than 20 per cent are achievable with hybrid over standard diesel.

And who knows, with the merger of Daimler and Hino coming into effect on April 1 next year, we could see some of the big Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner trucks sporting hybrid powertrains.

It will be interesting to watch.

Hybrid is

the answer - Hino reckons its low

emission solution answers the questions buyers are asking

Hino Australia boss Richard Emery has told the truck media the company is doubling down on hybrid powertrains for its trucks, calling them the perfect bridge from diesel power to a world of battery electric and zero emission drivelines, which he says are realistically still a few years away from mainstream use.

Speaking at a media briefing in Darwin, Emery, who is president and CEO of the Japanese manufacturer’s Australian subsidiary, told the gathered journalists that hybrid drivelines are the best direction to emissions reduction through low and zero emission vehicles.

“Diesel powertrains in trucks will remain the pre-eminent

solution in the Australian trucking industry beyond 2030,” he said.

“We believe Hybrid will be the only high volume, loweremission truck in Australia over the next decade, and Hino is currently the only manufacturer to offer one.

“Battery electric will be a key part of the future fleet in Australia in certain applications, while hydrogen will also be a factor in the next decade, probably in long haul applications to begin with,” he said.

Emery pointed out that battery electric powertrains are still a difficult sell for a number of reasons and in light duty have hardly set the world on fire. If you look at the registration numbers so far this year BEV light duty trucks

sales have barely broken 20 and are probably close to ten units with Foton Mobility registering nine and Fuso eCanter only a handful more.

The Hino boss says that the brand believes it will sell around 300 hybrid models in Australia this year, with plans for 400 next year and 500 in 2027.

Hino says it is the only brand in Australia that is working on all drivetrain solutions, with its parent company in Japan having already started trials with a heavy-duty 700 Series as a hydrogen fuel cell truck, which started more than two years ago.

“As our competitors begin to offer diesel options that meet Euro 6 emissions compliance as our hybrid does, the gap in monthly lease payments between hybrid and diesel will continue to decrease,” he continued.

Hino claims its hybrids are increasing in popularity among customers across a greater range of applications with 31 per cent of last year’s hybrid deliveries received by firsttime Hybrid customers.

“We have our existing diesel offerings, we have an existing hybrid offering in 300 Series and we are working to add a 700 Series hybrid to that if we can, we are undertaking a trial on a Dutro EV, which we showed at the Brisbane Truck Show and obviously Hino has hydrogen trials underway in Japan with 700 series,” Emery pointed out.

“This puts us in a unique position covering all bases to some extent, and I’m not sure I could name another brand available in Australia that can show that level of commitment to advancing lowering emissions on the truck fleet,” said Emery

“It is important I think to acknowledge that it is Hino that has been pre-eminent

“Furthermore, interest is increasing in 2025 at the end of May, we were at 71 per cent of the total Hybrid deliveries in 2024,” said Mr Emery.

Hino claims that achieving significant fuel and CO2 reductions without compromising operational range or payload continues to be a key motivation for its customers who it says can choose from a range that includes models from car-licensed 4.5 tonne GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) up to light rigid-licensed 8 tonne GVM.

“Our recent fuel efficiency test around the iconic Mt Panorama circuit and surrounding streets of Bathurst replicated the conditions of a local delivery operation – almost 300 kilometres of testing showed fuel savings of up to 24 per cent in wide cab variants and 22 per cent in standard cab, which reinforces our customers’ expectations,” he continued.

Emery noted the ‘sweet spot’ that currently exists for purchasers of Hybrid trucks:

“The balance between cost, range, payload, maintenance and resale are all critical measures when determining which technology works for any application – increasingly, a Hybrid Electric hits that sweet spot while also reducing emissions,” he said.

Planning for the medium-term future, Hino Australia is currently undertaking customer trials with light-duty Dutro (300 Series) Z-EV (Zero Emission Vehicle) to determine their feasibility in the Australian market.

“This will ensure that when the time comes in Australia for full-scale electric vehicles, Hino will have a product that meets our customers’ needs and specifications,” concluded Emery.

Hino Puts Hybrid to the Test at Bathurst: Real-World Fuel Efficiency Showdown

Hino Australia has taken hybrid truck testing to new heights— literally—by staging a full-day real-world fuel efficiency trial at the iconic Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst. The goal? To demonstrate how the Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric lightduty truck stacks up against its diesel equivalent in real-world conditions.

The result: a compelling case for hybrid electric technology in commercial fleet applications, with fuel savings reaching up to 29% and significant reductions in CO₂ emissions.

A Race Against Fuel Consumption, Not the Clock

Rather than simulating ideal test conditions, the Hino team created a delivery-style loop that mimicked the daily operation of a local courier truck. According to Daniel Petrovski, Hino’s Manager of Product Strategy, the idea was simple: “Reimagine the Bathurst 1000—but with delivery trucks, not Supercars.”

The 35-kilometre route began at Bathurst Airport and travelled

to multiple destinations including the city centre, the regiona works depot, and the sports stadium—before taking on the famous mountain circuit itself. Over eight laps, each vehicle clocked close to 300 kilometres—representative of a full day of suburban delivery work.

Test Conditions and Controls

To eliminate driver style as a variable, Hino used nine drivers, including professional and non-professional drivers, who rotated through the fleet. As Neil Crompton, motorsport commentator and host of the Hino Hub broadcast explained, “No matter who drove both the hybrid electric or the diesel model, individually, they all achieved better economy driving the Hino hybrid electric.”

Each of the four trucks (two standard cab, two wide cab; each with a diesel and a hybrid version) were fitted with Hino-Connect telematics. This system collected real-time data including fuel use, braking events, time spent in optimal

operating zones, and over-revving.

The Results: Real Fuel Savings and More

The test revealed clear and consistent benefits for hybrid electric trucks. The standard cab hybrid saved 10 litres of fuel over the diesel model across the 295 km journey, while the wide cab hybrid saved even more.

By the end of the test:

• Fuel savings averaged 3.5L/100km for hybrid electric models

• Efficiency gains reached up to 29%

• Hybrid trucks travelled 1.7km further per litre

• One truck showed a 22% average fuel saving despite carrying ballast to replicate full GVM

• Hybrids required no refuelling during the test, despite a smaller tank

When extrapolated over real-world operations, the savings add up significantly:

• $110 per week in fuel savings per vehicle

• $5,500 annually

• $38,500 over seven years

“This is just one truck,” Petrovski noted. “If a customer runs 10 of these vehicles, that’s $385,000 in savings. That’s huge.”

Business-First Approach to Sustainability

Rather than pushing electrification for image alone, Hino’s message is squarely aimed at commercial fleet buyers seeking real return on investment.

“Transport operators in our market are actually looking at a return on investment—not just being a marketing tool for the green image of their company,” Petrovski said.

He added that while full battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are part of Hino’s long-term strategy, hybrid electric offers a more versatile, scalable solution today. With no range limitations and no reliance on public charging infrastructure, hybrid technology fits seamlessly into existing operations.

“You get electrification with no compromise on payload, no range anxiety, and lower emissions—all while cutting costs.”

Hybrid: Here and Now

Hino’s test not only underscores the hybrid’s commercial value, it also challenges preconceived notions about where hybrid electric is best suited. As Petrovski pointed out, “This isn’t the type of environment you’d expect to see a hybrid in. But it’s proving the hybrid can suit any application in Australia.”

That flexibility is critical in a diverse market where urban

congestion, regional delivery, and payload requirements vary dramatically.

Backed by Toyota’s proven hybrid technology and supported by local engineering and testing, the Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric is carving out a compelling middle ground for fleets seeking both cost efficiency and lower emissions.

Final Verdict

Whether you’re an owner-driver or running a national fleet, Hino’s Bathurst trial sends a clear message: hybrid electric trucks are ready for real-world duty, right now. And with fuel prices unlikely to drop significantly any time soon, the business case for switching to hybrid is stronger than ever.

As Neil Crompton summed it up from the Hino Hub: “No matter your driving style or fleet size, the savings and environmental benefits of a Hino hybrid electric are impossible to ignore.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC9o0iiA4Wk

Hitting the Sweet Spot for EmissionConscious Fleets

In a market grappling with the demands of decarbonisation, evolving emissions regulations, and high operational pressures, Hino believes its 300 Series Hybrid electric truck offers the right solution for fleets — right now.

Speaking during a recent business briefing, Hino Australia President and CEO Richard Emery reaffirmed the company’s long-standing commitment to hybrid technology and made it clear that, despite recent commentary in the press, Hino sees hybrid as a critical part of the solution in the transition to lowand zero-emission transport.

“I make no apologies for this. It seems there is some rhetoric out there in the press — and I quote — that the jury is still out on hybrid,” Emery said. “Our position is as follows: diesel powertrains for trucks remain the preeminent solution, and probably this will be the case through to 2030 at least. Hybrid can provide an important step and an interim option over the next decade.”

A Better Fit for Now

Rather than waiting for battery electric vehicle (BEV) infrastructure and technology to catch up with operational needs, Emery said the 300 Series Hybrid already delivers where it matters most — in day-to-day running costs and total cost of ownership.

“We’ve interrogated the operational factors that are applied for any operator when considering a low- or zero-emission vehicle drivetrain option,” he said. “We’ve tested, analysed and taken feedback from our users… the balance between cost, range, payload, maintenance and resale — all critical measures.”

Using a visual “sweet spot” analogy during the briefing, Emery showed how BEVs still sit too far from the ideal combination of attributes for most operators. “If you move further away from the sweet spot, obviously there’s some compromise you have to take,” he said. “We see the compromise on range, resale, cost and a little bit on payload.”

In contrast, hybrid sits much closer. “We lose a little bit on payload. We lose a little bit on range. There’s a little bit of cost. We are much closer to that sweet spot that exists today,” Emery said. “We believe hybrid is much closer to the sweet spot that exists with the existing product, and that’s why we have seen inquiry increase.”

Hybrid vs Diesel: TCO Comparison

Emery shared a live customer quote to illustrate the shrinking cost gap between diesel and hybrid 300 Series trucks.

“The monthly lease is within $127 of a diesel. Maintenance is $83 less for a hybrid and [it has] a strong residual — 32% — which is pretty close to diesel’s 36%,” he said. “The petrol savings certainly outweigh the monthly rental being higher.”

With Euro 6 standards pushing up the price of new diesel trucks, the hybrid’s price premium is narrowing even further. “The cost difference to diesel options continues to close, and it will again do so this year, as alternate diesel options move into Euro 6,” Emery said. “The price gap decreases. Monthly cost, or at least lease, becomes negligible.”

Supply Ready, Demand Growing

Crucially, Hino says it can meet rising demand for hybrid. “We can build as many as we want,” Emery said. “We’re talking over 300 this year… I think we can head towards 400 or 500 over the next couple of years for sure.”

Unlike other parts of the Hino range, which are affected by production pauses due to the Euro 6 transition, the 300 Series Hybrid is Euro 6-certified and in uninterrupted production.

And Hino says the model’s recent success has come from a diverse customer base, not just a handful of bulk orders. “20-plus major, different customers took delivery of hybrid during last year,” Emery said. “Our first rental player has taken some into stock… for customers who are taking it for two weeks, three weeks as a replacement truck or added surge requirement — because the fuel savings make a big difference.”

Fleets such as City of Charles Sturt, Altus Traffic, CMW, Davidson Earthmovers and others are now investing in multiple hybrid units, after initially trialling a few.

“From their perspective, they may have had two or three. They’re now looking at making multiple purchases to supplement their fleet,” Emery noted.

BEV Not Quite Ready for All Applications

While Emery acknowledged that battery electric trucks have a place in the long-term future, he said the cost, range, infrastructure, and residual uncertainty remain too significant for widespread adoption in 2025.

“If anything, the jury is out for the moment on BEV,” he said.

“The risk and unknown on resale for the EV truck is a concern for adoption right now. Of course, it will improve.”

He also pointed to public contradictions from BEV-only competitors. “Foton stated that customers want to stop buying diesel — yet they launched a new diesel truck,” Emery said. “Outside of [their] one customer, demand for BEV still seems limited at this point.”

No New Hybrid Generation Just Yet — But No Need Either

When asked whether a next-generation hybrid 300 Series was on the cards, Emery said the current version would remain the core product for several years, given the engineering focus is on Euro 6 readiness for conventional models.

“We’re probably with [this product] for the next two or three years without much physical change, certainly in terms of the hybrid system,” he said. “It goes without saying that in a year’s time, there’ll be a broader conversation about drivetrains when the integration [with Daimler] is done.”

Hino’s Clear Hybrid Commitment

Ultimately, Hino believes hybrid trucks deserve more recognition in the emissions conversation.

“At an industry event last year, a number of BEV advocates lauded in their speeches the volume growth in low- and zeroemission sales. What they failed to acknowledge was that our hybrid performance had, in fact, provided the catalyst and the majority of that volume growth,” Emery said.

Hino sees the 300 Series Hybrid as a real, viable option for operators looking to cut fuel use and reduce emissions without sacrificing uptime or being burdened by infrastructure hurdles.

“When you factor all of this in… we think we’ve hit the sweet spot with hybrid,” Emery concluded. “And we think that sweet spot has at least five years head start on BEV.”

truck technology

HANGIN’ WITH THE HYBRID

Adrive between Sydney’s Sutherland Shire and Wollongong is a round trip of around 130 kilometres or so. Certainly not a run that can provide much of an opportunity to differentiate between the performances of Hino’s 300 diesel and hybrid models. Especially when part of that run was through the picturesque Royal National Park where the only stoppages were for the occasional roadworks.

However, with the Hino 300 Trade Ace diesel following behind, by day’s end the Hino hybrid’s fuel figures made for impressive reading. The diesel had consumed 21.2 litres of diesel, while the 616 hybrid was down to 16.9 litres during the half-day run.

Daniel Petrovski, Hino Australia’s department manager – product strategy, says double that and it’s a fuel saving of $20 per day. He points out further savings over a month, year and the life of the truck.

But more on that later.

The 300 Series Hino Hybrid has been operating in Australia for the past 15 years. It’s been an evolving process with the current model now boasting Euro 6 exhaust emissions standards. And, of course, using less fuel equates to less emissions over the same distance.

Whether it’s for environmental, economic or fashionable reasons, the big push is on for electric commercial vehicles in Australia. But while Hino has one eye on an electric future, it’s banking on its hybrid model to continue to provide fuel and maintenance savings and emissions reductions. Greg Bush writes per litre of diesel. You’ve still got to travel that distance,” Petrovski says.

“Rather than look at fuel reduction, you can improve this outcome by getting more kilometres

“So we’re looking at about 20 per cent savings/ reduction in fuel use, which also means an emissions cut. Some customers will get only 9 per cent if they operate between Sydney and Orange.

“Wollongong, that’s not a big hybrid operation but we thought, ‘okay, it’s a nice drive and you’ll get a good feel for the hybrid technology’.”

Petrovski also points out that, a run from Sydney’s south to Wollongong would be unsuitable for an electric truck, unless the driver is prepared to stop and charge up along the way. It’s just one fact, along with a few others, that’s behind Hino’s hybrid push to customers as it presents the pros and cons of EV ownership.

“Battery EVs, you’ve got to plug into the grid,” Petrovski says. “People say, ‘we’ll use solar on our battery EVs’. But how you are you charging those battery EVs? Are you using them at night? You can charge them all day using solar, but if you’re using them during the day you can’t charge up with solar during the night.

“So then they have to have a bigger battery bank, then that’s more rare earth materials.

“So the majority of people are going to be off the grid, having some offset, and that’s 0.656 kilograms of CO2,” Petrovski adds.

“If you think about the fact that one litre of diesel has 10kW hours of energy, that’s only 1kW.

“So to get 10kW hours which would be equal to 1 litre of diesel, we then times that CO2, 0.656kg, by 10 and that’s 6.56 kg of CO2. That’s 1 litre of diesel

putting out 2.68kg of CO2.

“So it’s three times more greenhouse gas than a diesel vehicle.” Petrovski points out that, on a global scale, Australia is second only to India in terms of CO2 output per kWh. With China having a better, cleaner CO2 grid than Australia, he says we need to be down where the US and Germany are before EVs really become a viable option for us.

“We need to halve the CO2 output,” he says.

“People who are buying battery electric vehicles, they don’t want to know about this because they’re doing it from a point of view of, they want to feel good about what they’re doing. They want to be seen to have the virtue signalling about how great they’re spending all this money on an electric vehicle.

“Well, actually you won’t be good until 2035, so are you going to

“You can improve this outcome by getting more kilometres per litre of diesel.”

keep that vehicle until 2050? And run it for 30 years?

“No, these guys aren’t, they’re going to buy an electric vehicle and keep it for three years on a lease and then move it out,” Petrovski says.

“The Brisbane Truck Show will be the same. People will be there with battery EVs; no-one wants to miss out.”

There’s also practical and vocational decisions to be made over hybrid versus battery electric. He says applications that involve off-road exploring or remote recoveries, mining and exploration would be out of an EV’s capabilities.

“Some of these applications might be able to use hydrogen, but they won’t be able to do remote filling with hydrogen. They’ll get a huge range but a lot of those applications you need to fill remotely.

“Fire trucks, they’re an emergency service. Can you imagine a battery EV in 2019 when we had the fires like south-east Australia? The place was on fire for three months. They had no electricity.”

Torque boost

The fire season took time out for the 2022-2023 summer so it was clear skies all the way for the drive south to Wollongong. Coupled to an automated manual transmission, the Hino N04C-WR engine with 470Nm of torque cruised along nicely. From a standing start, or after stopping at traffic lights, the electric motor did deliver a nice boost of torque, despite a significant load in the back.

“The electric motor will start to turn the transmission before the clutch is even engaged,” Petrovski explains. “So you don’t get as much clutch wear because that electric motor is starting to move the vehicle forward, then the clutch engages, less friction and takes off.

“But while that electric motor is doing its bit, it’s up to 1200rpm from clutch engagement, which is like 550-600rpm on idle.”

One interesting aspect around the AMT is its inclination to upshift as it tends to move into its most efficient range. Depending on road conditions, driver interaction may be required. It’s a simple matter of switching to sequential mode and keeping it in the gear selected. Other than that, and one of the hybrid’s selling points, is simply selecting ‘D’ for dummy and pressing the accelerator.

As expected, the diesel cuts out after a couple of seconds stopped at lights – except for a brief period when the hybrid was in a regeneration phase. It was this section of the drive that mostly contributed to the fuel usage difference.

The hybrid returned with figures of 8.57km per litre of fuel, compared to the diesel’s 6.56. It ended up with a five litre difference, with the diesel using 22 litres and the hybrid 17 litres.

Hino generally quotes a 20 per cent saving in fuel with a hybrid compared to a straight diesel, taking a conservative approach with estimates. However, with the modest Sutherland-Wollongong run multiplied to 69,000km per annum, fuel savings start to add up, especially when the diesel is anticipated to use 11,000 litres per year compared to the hybrid’s 8,500. Petrovski says it equates to a saving of $398 each month on fuel.

That doesn’t take into account service, maintenance and the total cost of ownership. While the hybrid is around $16,000 more expensive than the diesel, Petrovski says vehicle buyers will get that difference back in just three years. His figures show a diesel costing $2028 to run each month, while a hybrid’s costs are ������������������������������������������������������������� change intervals, not to mention the half tonne of CO2 savings each month.

Petrovski believes most customers opt for a lease arrangement, while buyers will keep the truck for between seven to 10 years.

With around 700 Hino hybrids currently on the road in Australia, and another 300 on order, Petrovski says the hybrid has hit a sweet spot for the manufacturer and will be a massive advantage over the next five to 10 years, even more so as there is little or no competition in the hybrid market.

“We’ve been trying to give the customers what they want, a vehicle that cuts their emissions and cuts their operating costs.

“We can offer cost reduction, environmental improvements and operational benefits for fleets,” Petrovski says. “This is our blue sky, blue ocean area. It really is a unique time for us.” See the Hino Hybrid on Stand 61 at the Brisbane Truck Show, running from May 18 to 21.

ANOTHER HINO

UP TO 22%* FUEL SAVINGS WITH THE SELF-CHARGING HINO HYBRID ELECTRIC.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric light-duty truck is the perfect solution for your business. Delivering up to 22%* fuel and emissions reductions, with no recharging or range limitations. It’s the first and only light-duty Hybrid truck to meet Euro 6 exhaust emissions standards and customers can also benefit from a 16% reduction in maintenance costs. Driven by Toyota Group technology, experience Australia’s only Hybrid Electric truck that reduces your operational cost to gain a genuine competitive advantage. Harness the Hino Hybrid Electric today! Find out more at hino.com.au

*Actual results will vary depending on the application of the vehicle and how it is driven.

REDUCE EMISSIONS NOW

There is a lot of buzz and speculation going on around zero emissions vehicles, but you can make a start on the process and reduce emissions now by using a hybrid electric truck. PowerTorque took to the road to quantify just how much it is possible to save.

Keen observers may have noticed that the truck formerly known as a ‘hybrid’ is now to be known as a ‘hybrid electric’. This is because Hino is promoting the range as a first step on the road to zero emissions. As something an operation can do now to reduce its carbon footprint before the, in development, zero emission solutions start to appear in numbers and become cost effective.

Late last year Hino decided to reemphasise the advantages of the hybrid platform and promote the technology as a first step solution for those looking to decarbonise their fleets.

“We’ve gone from an average of 50 sales a year, that’s the most successful low or zero type emissions vehicle

to be sold in the commercial market over the past 15 years,” says Daniel Petrovski, Department Manager, Product Strategy for Hino Australia.

“We’ve got over 700 of them already on the road. We’ve got orders coming in this year and have exceeded 300 vehicles already. We’re expecting that we’re going to see a massive shift and will be hitting 500 plus orders by the end of the year.

The objective of this truck test was a simple one. Tim Giles would drive a hybrid electric truck around a typical urban delivery route in Sydney followed by an identical truck powered only by diesel. Measuring the amount of diesel burnt over the journey for both trucks would give the amount of difference in overall fuel consumption and also the reduction of

CO2 going into the atmosphere.

Driving style can effect fuel consumption on any kind of propulsion, but we were looking for a best case scenario and drove to try and minimise fuel burn, both on the hybrid and diesel truck.

For the trip around Sydney, in traffic most of the day, the trucks covered 82km, over roughly three or four hours of driving. The diesel 300 Series used 13 litres, while the hybrid used about 10 litres.

More precise measurement from the onboard electronics brings the result to 6.329km/L for the diesel versus 8.265km/L for the hybrid. This is a reduction in fuel burn of 30.58 per cent. Of course, this also equates to a reduction of 30.58 per cent in carbon emissions.

DO THE MATHS

Over the 82km, which is probably half a shift for a truck like this.

Calculating from this relatively small experiment, it is possible to calculate the kind of savings available over a year for a hybrid compared to a conventional diesel.

Of course, Hino won’t give precise figures for lease payments on the two different technologies, but we know there is a premium on a hybrid truck over the diesel, and that commonly works out at around a 25 per cent price premium for the hybrid version.

The test run would probably, in practice, equate to a truck doing just over 41,000km a year in a similar application. The hybrid should be able to save around 1500 litres of diesel a year at that rate. If you are counting, that’s a reduction in carbon emissions of well over 300kg. Going on current fuel prices, that’s up to $3000 less spent on fuel and that will be clawing back that hybrid premium, from the first month.

Daniel suggests the maintenance costs on the hybrid will be $60 a month less than for the diesel. The engine is working less hard and the

electric power component needs less maintenance. Brakes should last longer, when the battery regeneration helps retard the vehicle when slowing down. The calculation will come to break even territory between four and five years into the truck’s life.

The average Hino buyers tend to get a truck with a five year finance package, and then keep the truck for seven to ten years. In that scenario, a hybrid has probably saved the buyer most of the initial hybrid premium by the end of the finance agreement, and will definitely be either level pegging or better off over the whole period of ownership with a hybrid.

This is the kind of detail the Hino team are going into with clients now, telling them there is an advantage in buying hybrid over a diesel now, with the added benefit of being seen to be trying to do something about global warming. Plus, if the price of diesel looks set to climb higher then the logic behind a hybrid purchase. just gets stronger.

Hino is the only truck maker active in Australia with a hybrid option, and their competitors will be pushing the jump straight to battery electric

ALT-POWER

THE POWER TO SUIT ANY INDUSTRY

THAT’S ANOTHER HINO

vehicles (BEV), missing out on this first step. The fact is that the hybrid is available now, and can start to offer real fuel and carbon savings now, but the BEV is still an expensive item, with limited infrastructure for recharging and with no clear picture of pricing or possible subsidies.

As a driver the experience of taking this truck around the city is a relaxed one. The response from the truck is smooth and comfortable with the fact that there is an electric motor and batteries involved in the driveline, simply making the whole process of speeding up and slowing down much less stressed, The bonus is the engine shutting off as soon as the truck is stationary, it’s the serenity.

Out on the road the AMT will make precise gear changes when the truck is setting off. Sometimes, there’s something a bit ponderous about it.

As the driver takes their foot off the brake, the AMT has to be in neutral, engage the clutch, start the engine, disengage the clutch, select the gear, then move off.

There is a cure for this on the part of the driver, if they take the foot off the brake, as the car in front’s brake lights go off, then the truck will set off at the right time and keep the queue moving. This is because, if the engine’s running when the car immediately in front sets off, it’s good to go.

These are the sorts of things the driver will have to do to make the

kinds of savings achieved possible.

That is think about a strategy to save fuel and enact it out on the road. This is probably both the hybrid’s strength and weakness.

This technology makes it possible for a motivated driver to put in some effort and probably get a better saving than this PowerTorque test achieved. However, give it to a driver with a heavy right foot and no incentive to save fuel, then the premium on the hybrid price is going to take a lot longer to be paid down.

FUTURE SOLUTIONS

Looking ahead into the trucking crystal ball becomes difficult, as the fast changing technology emerges, gets developed and is finally released to the market.

That kind of calculation became all the more difficult after the recent announcement of a merger between Fuso and Hino, where Toyota and Daimler will form a single entity to bring the next generation of technology forward for both brands.

“Fuso and Hino will merge on an equal footing and collaborate in the areas of commercial vehicle development, procurement, and production,” said a statement from Daimler and Toyota. “They will build a globally competitive Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer.

Daimler Truck and Toyota will equally invest in the (listed) holding

company of the merged Fuso and Hino. They will collaborate on the development of hydrogen and other CASE (Connected/Autonomous and Automated/Shared/Electric) technologies to support the competitiveness of the new company.

Until those solutions eventuate, the Australian truck buyer can make a start down the lower carbon track with a hybrid option, and wait until the uncertainties around BEV and other options play out.

“We see a big take up of BEVs, some time after 2035,” says Daniel.

“That’s not to say we’re not going to have them on sale before then. There is a niche part of the market which wants to buy a BEV and they want to be seen doing it.”

ADAPT TO ANY TASK WITH THE VERSATILE HINO HYBRID ELECTRIC.

Australia’s only Hybrid Electric truck range has an extensive model line-up from car-licenced 4.5 tonne GVM all the way to medium-rigid licenced 8 tonne GVM. Unleash the power of versatility with the range now expanded to include Built to Go models, or customise a body to meet the unique needs of your business. Delivering up to 2 2 %* in fuel savings and emissions reductions, the Hino Hybrid Electric is ready to deliver from day one. That’s the power of change, that’s the Hino Hybrid Electric. Visit hino.com.au

*Actual results will vary depending on the application of the vehicle and how it is driven.

CLE IT PAYS TO KEEP

Alsco Uniforms provides laundry services and other products across a number of market segments, including healthcare, automotive, industrial, manufacturing and hospitality. With more than 200 locations and 16,000 employees, Alsco Uniforms services over 350,000 customers in 12 countries, which makes Alsco Uniforms the largest uniform company in the world.

Alsco Uniforms has been operating in Australia for over 60 years, and today has 28 locations looking after 48,000 clients, and is a provider of hospitality

and accommodation linen, workwear, floor mats, as well as first aid training and equipment services and washroom hygiene services. The green liveried Alsco Uniforms vehicles handle uniform and textile deliveries, and the bright blue

“Fresh & Clean” branded vehicles and their drivers, look after washroom, hand hygiene and first aid services. The Alsco Uniforms vehicles follow regular routes and routines which not only contributes to fleet and fuel efficiency, but also allows the staff to build rapport with their customers.

“They are the face of our business, and

LE

LE

LEAN

Alsco Uniforms is a fifth-generation family-owned and operated uniform and linen laundry service company founded in the USA in 1889 and is recognised for having invented the uniform and linen rental industry.

they’re interacting with our clients every week,” says Daniel McEvedy, the Alsco Uniforms National Fleet and Logistics Manager. “Our business model is such that we have a weekly delivery service to our clients.”

Daniel has been with the company for over a decade, commencing as an account manager before transitioning to a special project around seven years ago to examine opportunities to improve the efficiencies of fleet operations in areas such as routing. This project secondment led to Daniel’s appointment to his current role of

National Fleet and Logistics Manager three years ago.

“Looking at the processes we realised there were a few areas of opportunity for us,” says Daniel. “I like seeing things that are done particularly well and also seeing how we could do them even better, because at the end of the day, it’s better for the people and for the business.”

With the benefit of his experience in customer-facing service roles, Daniel was able to see situations from a fundamental perspective. Daniel’s role covers everything service related involving the vehicles, as well as people resources such as training, and the attraction and retention of customers and other staff.

The core of the Alsco Fleet and Logistics department is the in-house fleet of more than 500 vehicles, including passenger cars, light and medium rigid trucks and vans, a couple of prime movers, plus another 100 or so contractor vehicles.

As well as delivering hygienically cleaned and laundered uniforms and textiles, the Alsco Uniforms vehicles also pick up the worn and used products, which means the trucks aren’t empty at the end of the day and are often fuller and heavier due to the wet or soiled items which have been collected, ready to go through the laundry process. After the uniforms and textiles have been through the laundry, they are packed on to a truck to continue the delivery cycle.

The larger trucks perform linehaul distribution between branches and depots.

For example, Canberra and Bathurst are serviced from Alsco Uniforms in Campbelltown in Sydney’s southwest, and a truck is constantly travelling between the

two locations.

In Cairns, in Far North Queensland, Alsco Uniforms are in the process of equipping their fleet with prime movers and trailers which will be used for transporting their serviced products, continuously moving up and down the Queensland coast between the Cairns branch and centres such as Townsville and Rockhampton, ensuring clients, even in these remote locations, will receive their deliveries on the weekly schedule.

When it comes to picking the right vehicle for the job, the truck brands of choice are quite evenly split between Hino and Isuzu.

“While I prefer having just one supplier for most things, with trucks it’s beneficial to have two,” says Daniel. In this competitive market, Daniel says the price models for similar vehicles are essentially identical and supply and availability are the determining factors when ordering new trucks.

“The customer service from both companies is great, and they’re both good

at building relationships,” he says. “The process has got to be easy and if it becomes a friction point you just don’t want to be dealing with that. I’m all for making any process easier, faster, better and having two suppliers who can provide you with vehicles does just that.”

A common challenge with many truck customers in the current market is the backlog of work being performed by body builders.

“We commission the build of 30 to 40 new trucks per year and you can only ask people to hurry up so many times, because they themselves will also have supply issues,” explains Daniel. “We’ve tried to move away from special builds because they take longer and are not able to be utilised everywhere within our own network.”

An open approach to operational matters has also contributed to solving the vehicle situation, as has utilising more standard body designs.

“In the past we would have routes that

were more geared towards certain products. The difficulty with this set up is when a linen truck wasn’t available you couldn’t put a mat truck there easily due to their different build and configuration or even the trolley system used,” Daniel says. “Over the past three years I’ve been moving away from specific builds to a more generic style of body, which can be used for everything. They can be built faster, slightly cheaper, and are more configurable, plus can be better for resale. If a truck is out of action for any reason, the configuration of the replacement doesn’t matter. We’re utilising our entire fleet by being smarter, so instead of having ten trucks doing 1,000 kilometres each week and others only doing 70, reviewing that data over a threeor six-month period and being able to swap them over is beneficial for us. If you have unique builds, it’s not as easy.”

Alsco Uniforms has a reputation as an employer which provides good opportunities for personal and professional growth. Both the current and previous CEOs started as Service Delivery Personnel (SDP) in the business and most managers at regional level also started as SDPs.

“We’re always looking not just towards the future, but the feasibility of a change

today,” says Daniel. “There can be a lot of hype and marketing but what’s the genuine feasibility of having something in your fleet? The hype around EV is good in terms of lower carbon emissions but how feasible is it for the company and is it cost effective?”

Alsco Uniforms already has two EVs in its fleet, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, both from SEA Electric and equivalent to Hino 816 models.

Alsco Uniforms is not simply a distribution business, it’s a production and process operation as well, and in identifying the biggest contributor to CO emissions shows it’s not the vehicles.

“We want to do the right thing in terms of moving towards zero emissions and we’ve got our internal goals towards sustainability, CO emissions, and our carbon footprint. In our industry the big win for us is when we change our internal processes involving factors such as heat, steam, and gas. That’s not sidelining EVs but at present the most progress in this space is coming from internal processing,” says Daniel. “We have a dedicated engineering team working on changing the way we recycle heat and looking at things like wastewater. For us that’s the cake, the

THE POWER TO SAVE ON FUEL AND EMISSIONS.

THAT’S ANOTHER HINO

EV is the cherry on top.”

Alsco Uniforms has solar projects in Perth, Melbourne, and Adelaide, and is looking at installing similar systems all over country to reduce its carbon footprint. Two Hino Hybrid trucks operate from the Salisbury branch in Queensland and will be joined by two more at the Brisbane branch this year.

“Potentially, some will be going into Melbourne as well. For me, hybrid is a tried and tested method which works well and is cost effective,” says Daniel.

“Looking at the numbers, hybrids are much more manageable and the Total Cost of Ownership gap is almost nothing.

It’s not as simple as saying we’ll take ten EVs because we must consider what’s required to support them, and their range capability. The hybrids are great — we get the kilometres we need out of them, they’re reducing emissions, they’re much more cost effective, more readily available and that’s one way on our vehicle side we are looking at reducing our carbon emissions.”

It’s through smarter routing as well.

“It’s not just one thing, its 10, 15 or 20 things all rolled into one that we’re doing to be the company pushing towards our sustainability goals,” says Daniel.

UP TO 22% * IN FUEL AND EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS WITH AUSTRALIA’S ONLY SELF-CHARGING HYBRID ELECTRIC TRUCK.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric utilises an electric motor and a diesel engine working in parallel, intelligently switching between the two or a combination of both - to boost efficiency. Maximum torque generated at very low rpm minimises fuel use resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions. And as the Toyota Group hydride nickel battery automatically recharges whilst on road during operations, there are no recharging requirements. That’s the power of change, that’s the Hino Hybrid Electric. Visit hino.com.au

National

THAT’S ANOTHER HINO

HINO QUALITY MEETS TOYOTA TECHNOLOGY.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric utilises a parallel diesel electric hybrid driveline design, powered by Toyota Group technology proven in over 15 million hybrid vehicles worldwide. With maximum torque generated at low rpm, real-world tests prove up to 22%* fuel savings and emissions reductions. Leading the way with low-emissions, there are no recharge requirements or range limitations. Fully backed by Hino Advantage, giving you more support and solutions for the long run.

That’s the power of change, that’s the Hino Hybrid Electric. Visit hino.com.au

THERE’S BEEN A SUBTLE CHANGE IN THE LANGUAGE BEING USED BY HINO WHEN IT COMES TO IT’S HYBRID TRUCKS. WHERE ONCE THEY SIMPLE CALLED THEM HYBRIDS, THE COMPANY HAS NOW LABELLED THEM ELECTRIC HYBRIDS.

IT IS A SUBTLE CHANGE THAT COULD BE VIEWED AS EITHER A WAY OF PAPERING OVER THE FACT THAT HINO DOES NOT HAVE A PURE BATTERY ELECTRIC OF ITS OWN YET, NOR DOES IT SEEM LIKELY IT WILL HAVE ONE IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, OR THAT IT IS MERELY EMPHASISING THE EFFICIENCY OF A BOOST OF AN ELECTRIC/DIESEL HYBRID COMBINATION. WE DROVE THE LATEST SPEC HINO HYBRID UP AGAINST A DIESEL RECENTLY TO SEE THE COMPARISON.

Hino’s hybrid trucks have been around for quite some time now. The 300 Series Hino Hybrid has been operating in Australia for the past 15 years, and it’s fair to say that the technology has not really set the sales charts alight.

That can probably be sheeted home to a number of things, including a lack of understanding in the marketplace, a scepticism of the technology by potential buyers and perhaps the fact that until recently it’s been easier to sell a diesel than a hybrid truck.

So far in 2023 Hino has sold around 120 hybrid models in Australia to the end of June, according to figures we have seen, which means they account for just a shade over 3.7 per cent of the brand’s total sales

in Australia, so as we say buyers are hardly knocking the doors down to add hybrids to their fleets. However even though in recent times, the rapid increase in interest in electric drivelines in trucks and a growing pressure on large corporations to reduce emissions has seen a clamour to get onboard a zero emission or at least a low emission future, battery electric sales haven’t really taken off yet either.

In June according to TIC’s alternative fuel truck sales figures Hino sold 49 Hybrids for the month or around 40 per cent of its 120 hybrid sales for the year to date, so something is starting to move.

The threat for Hino’s hybrid electric model however could be the oncoming rush of reasonably priced battery electric trucks with the arrival of such as things as Isuzu’s

own battery electric N Series sometime in the next 18 months, or more immediately trucks from battery electric newcomers, like Foton Mobility. The newly arrive Chinese truck and bus maker registered 21 electric trucks in June to be the best selling pure battery electric brand with worked that it has a lot more orders in the bank for months ahead

So with no pure battery electric model on the horizon Hino is banking on its hybrid models to continue to provide it with a entrant in the ‘electric’ truck market delivering fuel savings and emissions reductions.

Part of Hino’s push was seen in the chance to do a test drive in a Hino 300 Series Hybrid 616 accompanied by a similar specced model on a run south from

the company’s Aussie HQ in the southern Sydney suburb of Woolooware to the steel city of Wollongong and back. The run roughly approximated a normal workday for a truck like this, around 250km and a mix of suburban, motorway and rural road running and plenty of stop start driving.

Alongside us in the cab of the Hino Hybrid was the company’s product strategy and planning guru. Daniel Petrovski who is a strong advocate for the Hybrid technology in trucks and foreshadowed a bunch of other Hino variants earmarked for potential sales in Australia.

Petrovski admits that hybrid sales have not been what they should have been in Australia and says that they have targeted to increase sales from the 50 odd hybrids they have been selling per year in recent

times, to 300 this year, which they appear to be on track to achieve.

“I think we haven’t sold it that well and there needs to be some basic education about the benefits of hybrid and how to get the best out of them,” Petrovski mentioned.

Petrovski and Hino point to a potential fuel saving of around 20 per cent for a hybrid over a comparable conventional diesel only truck, and to give an indication we were tailed throughout our drive by a diesel powered Hino 617 Trade pack, to enable us to have a pretty accurate comparison of fuel consumption between the two.

Petrovski was also selling the hybrid concept on the basis of the enormous amount of infrastructure that will be needed to enable larger fleets of electric

vehicles to be charged each day, pointing out that the hybrid only requires the normal fuel station network already in place.

However there also seems to be a lot of work going on behind the scenes to deliver that electrical and charging infrastructure to cope with an electric vehicle fleet which will not arrive in one burst but rather over many years of growth, so time will tell which train of thought is correct.

We climbed aboard the 616 Hybrid at Hino HQ for the trip south and like any hybrid machine the little Hino glided away from start pretty quietly and without any fuss or bother. Subtly and very seamlessly the diesel engine kicks in after a short time, blending with the electric motor that is integrated into the drive line, and which acts as a generator when decelerating or

running downhill. This puts charge back into the hybrid’s battery to ensure plenty of charge when accelerating or climbing supplementing the diesel’s drive.

Driving through the traffic of the Sutherland Shire in the mid-morning, following a thorough briefing on the hybrid concept showed that the truck drives pretty much like a full diesel powered one.

The driveline of the hybrid runs through a six-speed AM/T so it is pretty much like driving a conventional diesel and is a benefit for operators struggling to attract skilled truck drivers.

Petrovski added to this with the fact that a hybrid reduces the wear on the clutch, even with an AM/T, because with the electric motor driving the initial acceleration of the truck from standstill, the transmission is being turned before the clutch is even engaged.

“The electric motor turn the transmission before the clutch is engaged, so there isn’t as much clutch wear because the electric motor starts to move the truck along before the clutch engages, so that means less friction and less wear, “ Petrovski explained.

The AMT also allows the driver to shift manually if needed or simply keep it in drive and allow the transmission’s electronic brain to do the work for you and it does that reasonably efficiently.

Of course as a hybrid, when the truck pulls up at a set of traffic lights the diesel

024

www.truckandbus.net.au

engine will stop and when the lights turn green the initial start-up is again on the electric motor before the diesel comes to life after the initial hard work is done by the electric motor. This is where some significant fuel usage benefits are achieved both at ide and in that high burn rate time for a diesel overcoming the inertia of the truck when accelerating.

Far from being difficult or complex to drive the hybrid is very easy to pilot hosing down at least one fear that truck operators have expressed to us about adopting the technology.

The other resistance we have been made aware of is what savings can be gained from a hybrid and how they compare with the added purchase price for one?

After a four or so hour’s behind the wheel of the Hybrid on the run to the ‘Gong and back the truck returned fuel consumption of 8.09 km/litre compared with 7.20km/ litre used in the Hino 616 diesel that tailed us on the drive. So that meant that the hybrid used about 12.29 per cent, which we have to say was not as impressive as we thought it might have been.

According to the figures Hino supplied following our drive the Hybrid’s 12.2 per cent less fuel consumption is just part of the equation with Petrovski pointing to the reduced emissions and better environmental credentials that cannot be necessarily factored into any financial

equation at this point in time, and can’t be factored into the added purchase price of the hybrid over a similar spec conventional truck. In the murky realm of truck pricing it is at times difficult to get an exact price on specific trucks and certainly unlike cars, truck makers don’t generally publish an official price list but inthis instsance Hino opened up for us.

According to figures from Daniel Petrovski the 616 AMT 3430 Wide HV Trade Ace Hybrid Hino like the one we tested would cost about $85220. This is a premium of around $16,635 over the 616 AT Wide TradeAce conventional diesel at around $68585 recommended retail. that means that the payback on the added purchase price given fuel savings would be about three years. That of course doesn’t factor in those claimed reductions in maintenance and wear for the hybrid. So with Hino basing its figures on an average distance travelled annually for these trucks at 68,500km, and given a price of $2.00 per litre it estimates that the diesel only truck would use around 9510 litres in fuel each year, while the Hybrid would offer a fuel advantage over 12 months of about 1041 litres, with an estimated total fuel used at 8469.1 litres per annum. So on $2 per litre the fuel advantage cost would be around $2082 per year.

Factoring in the vehicle purchase price premium for the Hybrid over the

conventional diesel, and based on the fuel consumption figures above, Hino reckons that a customer using a hybrid on a similar route would be saving about $40 per week on total fuel and purchase price costs. Across a year that benefit increases to around $472 and across five years Hino reckons the advantage to the Hybrid is around $2378.

Hino was at pains to point out that the drive route utilised in comparison was a high kilometre outer metropolitan / regional application and would “traditionally” not be considered a suitable application for a low emissions vehicle like the Hybrid. It says the Euro6 Hino Hybrid now has greater suitability to these applications then previous models, due to changes in the transmission / electric motor operation and the application of the regenerative braking, as well as final drive ratio changes.

Petrovski also emphasised that the less fuel used, whatever that amount might be, means less emissions and that with the hybrid’s ICE powerplant being a Euro 6 standard it means that the emissions are even less than earlier model diesels.

Hino product planning boss point to the fact that it can also be viewed in another light, considering it instead from an efficiency point of view and in particular just getting more kilometres out of each litre of diesel.

He also mounts the case in favour of the hybrid over a battery electric truck saying that the run that we tested the hybrid on would be even less suited to a pure battery electric truck, particularly given the hilly running, motorway conditions and range situations. The electric truck he says, would need a charge at some point on a run like that. That is something we would like to test in the future before quoting that as fact.

He also emphasised this country’s power grid has a high CO2 output and that the alternatives for companies wanting to charge without using brown energy, such as solar panels etc. he says present a difficulty. While we go along with Petrovski’s pitch to some extent, it must also be considered that he is basing his numbers on data available now or from the past. The reality is that our grid is rapidly changing in terms of green energy and it is envisaged that by the time battery electric trucks become common place then the situation will have changed dramatically in how power is generated in Australia.

“If you look at the figures for one kilowatt hour of power from the grid then you are talking about 0.656 kg of CO2,” Petrovski tells us.

He compares this to figures he quoted for what diesel puts out in terms of CO2 and that he says that an electric truck charged from the grid would emit three times the emissions that a diesel truck would.

He based this on the fact that one litre of

diesel contains 10kW hours of energy and would emit 2.68kgs of CO2. That Petrovski says would mean that if you were to get the equivalent like for like emissions for 1kWh from the grid to 1kWh from diesel then you could divide that 2.68kg of CO2 by ten and that equals 0.268kg.

However the figure for grid power that was quoted by Petrovski appears to be a figure formulated in 2020. Figures from 2021 show that CO2 emissions have dropped to around 0.529kg for a kWh of power in Australia. That figure has changed further in the past two years, particularly given that in 2020 only 24 per cent of Australia’s power was generated by green power sources. That figure increased to 32.5 per cent of energy by green energy in 2021 and to 35.9 per cent last year. So given those dramatic increases in green energy that figure of CO2 produced in 2021 dropped further in 2022 and further again this year, so the CO2 advantage being spruiked for diesel is reducing all the time and will continue to decrease as more green power comes on line.

Which ever way you cut it a hybrid truck still has an ICE power plant that emits green house gases, albeit less than a pure diesel truck, and while a battery electric truck charged by the grid may currently mean more Co2 emitted, that will drop below the diesel figure sometime in the next few years.

That’s not to say that the hybrid concept is wrong or bad, far from it. It’s just that it is at best a bridge to a totally zero emission future for trucks that will come quicker than many believe. And herein lies our belief that Hino as part of the Toyota empire might skip the whole battery electric power train and use the hybrid as a bridge to Toyota’s clear favourite option, hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Toyota is one of the world leaders in hydrogen technology, both in fuel cells and in combustion engines, but has virtually no really high volume pure battery electric vehicles, which has led some pundits to prophesise that Toyota and by extension Hino are aiming at a H2 future not a BEV one.

While Petrovski did not necessarily totally confirm this theory, he did say that hydrogen will play a major role in Hino’s zero emission vehicle future. Even then he believes.

Petrovski also pointed to issues that he believes would weigh against battery electric in terms of particular applications and industries and says that efficient hybrids would need to be used well after electric and hydrogen takes over in city and on highway operations.

“Battery electric will struggle in rural fire services, can you imagine a battery EV fire truck in the bushfires we had back in 2019, the power grid was down across a huge amount of rural Australia, so recharging would have been impossible, there wqs no

026 www.truckandbus.net.au

electricity available,” Petrovski said.

“There’s also practical and vocational decisions to be made over hybrid versus battery electric in applications that involve off-road exploring or remote recoveries, mining and exploration which would be beyond a BEV’s capabilities,” he said “You might be able to use hydrogen in some of those applications, but remote filling with hydrogen will be difficult and even though they will have a huge range you’ll still need to fill remotely,” he added.

T&TA doesn’t necessarily agree with Petrovski on this one and indicators we have been made aware of is that hydrogen will be made available in remote areas because the large mining and ag corps will need to have it to satisfy their zero emission obligations

The 616 Hybrid we drove to Wollongong and back was powered by Hino’s N04CWR engine which with the help of its electric motor coupled to the diesel delivers 470Nm of torque, which is the critical figure, along with 110 kW of power. That was more than ample and the hybrid galloped along nicely, whether in traffic, hillclimbing or on the motorway.

Hino’s general claim is that a hybrid model will generally deliver a 20 per cent fuel saving over a totally diesel powered truck. However, the nature of the Sutherland-Wollongong run we tackled was not as well suited to a hybrid as a typical inner city suburban route where he

THE POWER TO SUIT ANY INDUSTRY THAT’S

ANOTHER HINO

reckons it truly shines and which would deliver even greater savings. What the route did deliver however was the fact that the Hybrid is adaptable to a range of conditions and offers savings all round.

It also doesn’t take into account service, maintenance and the total cost of ownership. While the hybrid is around $16,000 more expensive than the diesel, Petrovski says vehicle buyers will get that difference back in just three years. His figures show a diesel costing $2028 to run each month, while a hybrid’s costs are $1766. That includes lower maintenance costs and lower brake change intervals, not to mention the half tonne of CO2 savings each month.

Petrovski believes most customers opt for a lease arrangement, while buyers will keep the truck for between seven to 10 years.

With around 700 Hino hybrids currently on the road in Australia, and another 300 on order, Petrovski says the hybrid has hit a sweet spot for the manufacturer and will be a massive advantage over the next five to 10 years, even more so as there is little or no competition in the hybrid market.

“We’ve been trying to give the customers what they want, a vehicle that cuts their emissions and cuts their operating costs.

“We can offer cost reduction, environmental improvements and operational benefits for fleets,” Petrovski says. “This is our blue sky, blue ocean area. It really is a unique time for us.”

VERSATILE SOLUTIONS FOR A WIDE RANGE OF APPLICATIONS.

Engineered for versatility, the Hino Hybrid Electric is built to meet the demands of a wide range of industries. It supports a variety of body configurations tailored to suit your business needs. With up to 22%* fuel savings, no need to recharge and the Hino SmartSafe advanced driver safety package as standard, it’s a cleaner, smarter way to drive your business forward. Visit hino.com.au

evaluates conditions boosting PERFORMANCE. The driving ergonomics and cab have been reimagined and designed for supreme COMFORT.

S-Way makes tomorrow safer, more productive, and even more comfortable.

iveco.com.au