As the transport industry searches for practical pathways to decarbonisation, one Australian company is challenging conventional thinking around freight electrification.
Rather than replacing the diesel prime mover entirely, VE Motion, supported by its trailer manufacturing subsidiary Arends Trailers, has developed an innovative powered trailer platform that reduces fuel consumption, lowers emissions and improves vehicle performance without compromising operational flexibility.
To help bring the concept to life, VE Motion partnered with Transport Engineering Solutions (TES), leveraging TES’s expertise in heavy vehicle braking systems, TEBS integration and safety-critical vehicle controls.
Together, the teams have developed a powered eAxle trailer capable of supporting Australia’s demanding freight sector while delivering meaningful efficiency gains and a practical pathway towards lower-emission transport.
Reducing emissions in heavy transport presents a unique challenge. While electrification has transformed passenger vehicles, freight operators face different realities. Payload, range, reliability and vehicle utilisation remain critical business requirements that cannot be sacrificed.
For VE Motion’s founders, the challenge was clear from the beginning.
Drawing on their experience in the energy sector, the team recognised both the rising cost of diesel-generated energy and the increasing opportunities presented by electrification. However, they also understood that transport operators could not afford solutions that limited productivity or disrupted freight operations.
The objective became finding a way to significantly reduce diesel consumption while maintaining everything transport businesses rely on every day.
The challenge was even greater given Australia’s operating environment, which includes:
Rather than asking operators to change the way they work, VE Motion set out to develop a solution that could integrate seamlessly into existing transport operations while delivering tangible environmental and economic benefits.
Development of the project began in 2018, although the original concept looked very different from the solution seen today.
The team initially investigated hydrogen as a transport fuel, exploring ways to use low-cost electricity from grid-connected assets to produce hydrogen for heavy vehicle applications.
As development progressed, extensive modelling of energy efficiency, operating costs and vehicle performance consistently pointed towards battery-electric technology as the most effective pathway.
That discovery led VE Motion to develop a powered trailer architecture centred around:
The concept is deliberately simple from the driver’s perspective.
When the accelerator is applied, the powered trailer automatically assists propulsion, reducing the workload placed on the diesel engine. When the vehicle slows or descends a grade, energy is recovered through regenerative braking and stored within the onboard battery system.
The result is a vehicle combination that feels lighter, stronger and more responsive while significantly reducing diesel consumption.
Importantly, the system has been designed around the practical realities of Australian transport. If battery charge levels become low, the diesel prime mover continues operating normally, ensuring the freight task is never interrupted.
Developing a powered trailer introduced technical challenges rarely encountered in conventional trailer design.
Unlike a traditional trailer, the powered eAxle can actively contribute both propulsion and regenerative braking. This required the engineering team to carefully manage the interaction between the trailer, the prime mover and the overall vehicle combination.
Vehicle dynamics, functional safety and control system integration quickly became major focus areas.
The control architecture needed to continuously manage:
The project also required the development of a regulatory pathway, as powered trailers remain an emerging vehicle category within Australia.
VE Motion worked closely with industry stakeholders through the HVIA Powered Trailer Working Group, helping establish safe engineering and compliance pathways that combine heavy vehicle modification standards, Performance Based Standards (PBS), braking requirements and emerging functional safety principles.
This collaborative approach has helped lay the groundwork for the safe introduction of powered trailer technology across the Australian transport industry.
TES became involved through its long-standing relationship with Arends Trailers, where it already supplied and programmed Trailer Electronic Braking Systems (TEBS).
As the powered trailer project evolved, braking integration became one of the most critical aspects of the overall vehicle architecture.
Unlike conventional trailer projects, this system required seamless interaction between electric propulsion, regenerative braking and traditional braking systems. Achieving that safely demanded specialist expertise.
TES provided support across several key areas, including:
A particular focus was ensuring reliable communication between VE Motion’s proprietary controller and the braking system architecture, including integration with TEBS, 5V CAN communications and GIO functionality.
TES worked closely alongside VE Motion’s engineering team and OEM partner ZF WABCO throughout the development process, helping ensure the final solution met both operational and safety requirements.
According to VE Motion: “With a new technology like this, you need suppliers who are prepared to work through problems collaboratively rather than simply supply components. TES has done that throughout the project.”
That collaborative engineering approach played an important role in helping transform an innovative concept into a practical, road-ready transport solution.
The completed powered eAxle trailer delivers meaningful benefits across efficiency, performance and sustainability.
Following extensive testing and validation, VE Motion demonstrated that the powered trailer could achieve its intended objectives while maintaining the reliability expected by commercial transport operators.
Key outcomes include:
One of the defining milestones came during real-world testing at Rapid Bay, where measured vehicle performance and fuel savings closely matched the engineering team’s modelling and simulations.
For the VE Motion team, this marked the moment when years of development became reality.
A heavily loaded vehicle was operating in a genuine transport environment and achieving the results it had been designed to deliver.
The significance of the project extends well beyond a single vehicle.
The powered eAxle trailer demonstrates how electrification can be introduced into heavy transport without forcing operators to compromise on range, productivity or operational flexibility.
It also highlights the value of collaboration between vehicle manufacturers, technology developers and specialist suppliers.
By combining VE Motion’s expertise in electrified propulsion with TES’s deep knowledge of heavy vehicle braking systems, the project has created a practical solution capable of delivering both environmental and commercial benefits.
The project establishes a model for how emerging technologies can be safely introduced into the transport sector while maintaining the performance standards operators expect.
VE Motion is now progressing towards controlled commercial deployment, with plans to gather real-world operational data across multiple freight applications and expand deployment significantly during 2027 and 2028.
As powered trailer technology continues to evolve, projects like this demonstrate how innovation, collaboration and practical engineering can accelerate transport decarbonisation without compromising operational performance.
For TES, the project highlights the critical role that braking integration, safety systems and collaborative engineering play in enabling the next generation of intelligent heavy vehicles.
