Slow and Steady Wins the Race: How Autonomy Facilitates Long-Haul Truck Electrification

This paper examines how autonomy affects the competitiveness and operations of battery-electric long-haul trucks. We model fleet operations between Sydney and Melbourne—Australia’s busiest long-haul corridor—using a parameterised cost-minimisation framework. By lowering travel-time costs, autonomy leads to slower optimal speeds and reduced energy use. This enables smaller, lighter battery packs or reduces the number of charging stops en route, lowering total costs. Autonomy thus enhances the economic case for battery-electric trucks, improving their cost competitiveness relative to diesel trucks to approximately the same extent as would a AUS$50/kWh reduction in battery pack price.