Fonterra and Dr. Megan Woods, Minister of Energy and Resources, celebrated the launch of New Zealand’s first electric milk tanker yesterday in Morrinsville. The tanker is a pilot project that, if successful, has the potential to transform the country’s heavy transport sector, as road transport is one of the fastest growing sources of emissions.

The government has set an ambitious goal of reducing emissions from freight transport by 35% by 2035, and Fonterra sees tankers as a way to help the country achieve this goal.

The tanker, named Milk-E by one of Fonterra’s farmers, was built by the Morrinsville workshop of the co-op.

Fonterra chief operating officer Fraser Whineray stated that Milk-E is part of Fonterra’s fleet decarbonization work because the co-op aspires to be a leader in sustainability.

“Our teams are constantly looking at ways to reduce our emissions – from the farm to our sites and across our transportation network,” Whineray said.

“The team at our Morrinsville workshop did an outstanding job putting this tanker together. Milk-E is a New Zealand first, so it took a lot of creative thinking and Kiwi ingenuity to bring it to life.”

The tanker will be powered by battery swap technology. One battery takes about three hours to charge and can be swapped out in about six minutes.

It has a range of about 140 kilometers on a full charge, but this has yet to be tested. This is why Milk-E will be based at Fonterra’s Waitoa facility, as the town has many close-by supplying farms on relatively flat land, resulting in shorter runs.

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