Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
uilding trucks here at Dandenong<br />
in Victoria.<br />
While the manufacturer has been<br />
making moves on the scene since<br />
2013, it’s only recently that it has<br />
offered a production-ready SEA<br />
electric truck for Australia.<br />
After seeing SEA Electric’s latest<br />
offerings at the Brisbane Truck Show,<br />
we visited the factory in Dandenong<br />
for a look at how these trucks come<br />
together, managing to score the keys<br />
to a freshly built SEA300 for the day.<br />
SKD KITS<br />
The in-house developed<br />
powertrain, dubbed SEA-Drive,<br />
has been retrofitted to a variety<br />
of commercial vehicles in recent<br />
years, but now powers the latest<br />
range of locally-built light- and<br />
medium-duty trucks. A smart<br />
partnership with Hino has allowed<br />
SEA Electric to import semiknocked-down<br />
(SKD) kits to<br />
Australia, which form the backbone<br />
of the SEA-branded trucks.<br />
Another perk of the SEA<br />
Electric partnership with Hino is a<br />
country-wide network of 15 Hino<br />
dealers offering sales, servicing and<br />
support to SEA Electric customers.<br />
For those questioning whether<br />
these are just a drivetrain-swapped<br />
Hino, the SEA Electric trucks are<br />
badged ‘SEA’ with their own unique<br />
VIN numbers.<br />
Both Hino 300 and 500 chassis<br />
and cabs arrive straight from Japan<br />
in SKD form, where they’re swiftly<br />
assembled into the end product, the<br />
SEA300 and SEA500.<br />
Battery packs sit where the engine<br />
and gearbox would normally take<br />
up space, feeding juice to an electric<br />
motor that supplies drive straight<br />
to the diff. It’s a simple, direct-drive<br />
system with no gearbox needed.<br />
The facility operates like any<br />
modern factory, with six production<br />
bays and three finishing bays that<br />
spit out an Australian-made electric<br />
truck every 120 hours.<br />
However, within the factory there<br />
is also the capacity to develop and<br />
test new products and components<br />
– an efficient use of a relatively<br />
small space.<br />
“We have marketing, sales,<br />
design, research and development,<br />
procurement, material handling,<br />
fabrication, assembly and testing<br />
all done in-house”, SEA Electric vice<br />
Opposite below:<br />
The SEA Electric<br />
production line, free<br />
of fossil fuels and<br />
spotless across all<br />
six work bays<br />
FULLYLOADED.COM.AU July 2021 <strong>ATN</strong> 57
Change language