<
https://thedriven.io/2025/10/16/it-was-a-bit-of-a-frankenstein-the-rapid-evolution-of-fortescues-giant-electric-haul-trucks/>
"One of the keys to Andrew Forrest’s goal of reaching “real zero” emissions at
his giant iron ore mines in the Pilbara by 2030 is the transformation of its
trucking fleet from diesel to electric – and it has been a rapid learning
curve.
Fortescue Metals has been conducting trials with both battery electric and
hydrogen fuel cell iterations of its 240-tonne haul trucks that are key to the
mines’ operations, and been testing out Fortescue Zero’s own drive train and
battery technology along the way.
CEO Dino Otranto says it has been a rapid learning curve, but now the company
is in a position, with two different suppliers – Liebherr and XCMG – to take
its first deliveries in 2026.
“There is a bit of history to this,” Otranto says in the latest episode of
Energy Insiders, the weekly podcast on
The Driven’s sister site
Renew
Economy.
“We put the call out to our suppliers around partnering with us on net zero,
and then real zero now. And what that meant was having a commercially available
zero emission truck.
“And at that point, and it wasn’t too long ago, actually, it seemed pretty
crazy. And lo and behold, not many people put their hand up to say, hey, you
can buy one of these off the shelf. And that can, you know, worried us a little
bit, because we knew what the next challenge would be, was to go and build one
ourselves.
“It was a pretty visionary statement from our chairman (Forrest). And look,
less than 100 days later, we had built one. I mean, it didn’t go very fast, it
didn’t go very far, but hey, we did it.
“It was a bit of a Frankenstein, we put our own power system into into a
readily available chassis. It was a Terex chassis, which is a very long
standing brand and it was a Terex 4400 for those out there who like their old
trucks.
“So we put our power system inside this, and it ran quite successfully. And
then we had Liebherr step up and say, we’re really impressed with what you can
do. And so maybe the partnership is with a mining company, not a traditional
OEM, because what we found is often disruption comes from places that you’d
never expect.”
That led to the Roadrunner, which has been tested on site, with power systems
from the Williams Advanced Engineering company that Fortescue purchased, and
which is the centre of its R&D, where it is still learning and rolling out new
products such as super-fast charging for Formula E races."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
