SEA Electric doubles vehicle assembly plant capacity

Changes to electric vehicle policies foreshadowed by the federal government have encouraged electric truck manufacturer SEA Electric to double the size of its local assembly facility for zero-emission trucks in Dandenong, Melbourne.

The company, which team its EV drive trains to OEM supplied truck chassis here and in the United States, will expand its present plant to cover 8,000m2 on a total site of 15,000m2, giving SEA Electric the capacity to produce eight trucks per day, or up to 2,080 units per annum.

SEA CEO Tony Fairweather said: “Since launching our new range last year, we have attracted incredible interest from a wide cross-section of leading companies and government bodies, who seek to improve their environmental sustainability, despite a lack of policy and incentives to fuel growth in the sector on these shores.

“The recent change of Federal Government and the subsequent increase in EV activity, has provided SEA Electric with renewed confidence that appropriate policy and incentives maybe close.”

Fairweather said there are many examples of successful policy in EV progressive countries such as the US that Australia could simply emulate.

“Despite Australian passenger car production wrapping up in 2017, we still have vibrant engineering, development, and manufacturing capabilities, of which we should be proud.”

SEA Electric’s existing facility is fitted with a 100kW rooftop solar array, which has produced 129MWh of energy to date, with 86MWh being exported to the power grid.

The system produces 60 per cent more energy than the site consumes.

SEA Electric also plans to utilise the batteries within vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functional trucks on-site, where the trucks could provide power grid stability by feeding energy back at times of peak demand or grid disruption.

The local range of SEA Electric badged trucks, the SEA 300 EV and the SEA 500 EV, are available in a range of models from 4.5t GVM vehicles capable of being driven on a car licence, through to 22.5t three-axle rigid trucks.

Final applications for the products include dry and refrigerated freight, side, front and rear refuse trucks, tilt trays, work trucks and elevated work platforms amongst others, with the company recently launching Australia’s first airport refuelling EV truck.

Picture: SEA Electric