More clean, green transport options

Vic Department of Transport

Electric vehicles will become more reliable, affordable, and commonplace in Victoria under a government plan to research and develop the technology locally.

The Supporting the Electrification of Victoria’s Future Fleet project at RMIT’s City Campus, in collaboration with Monash and La Trobe universities, includes a living lab, featuring critical infrastructure like EV charging stations and regenerative grid and battery simulators.

Supported by a $5.2 million government investment, the project will boost Victoria’s transition to a zero-emission fleet, including public transport, by developing reliable and affordable technology, strengthening the grid, exploring batteries and storage, creating a public data-repository and rolling out public awareness campaigns.

Victoria’s transport sector accounts for 25 per cent of the state’s emissions, and our transport sector emissions reduction pledge reflects that Victoria’s target of net zero by 2050 requires substantial reductions in transport sector emissions.

Under the pledge, all new buses will be zero-emission by 2025, zero-emission vehicles will make up half of all new car sales by 2030.

A space where researchers and industry can collaborate and test concepts in real scenarios, the living lab will be fully operational by mid-2023 and create 18 jobs, as well as delivering learning opportunities for students to train for the jobs of the future.

The $8.18 million project is a joint effort by the Victorian Government, RMIT, La Trobe and Monash universities, alongside the City of Melbourne, C4NET, CitiPower and Siemens.

The project was one of many pitches from universities to the $350 million Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund, supporting universities with capital works, research infrastructure projects and applied research focused on boosting Victoria’s productivity and economy as the state recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

/Public Release. View in full here.