THE SHORT ANSWER
As at August 2026 there is no open Victorian or federal grant that funds buying or hiring an electric forklift. The Victorian Freight Decarbonisation Co-Investment Program closed on 6 July 2026 and funded road and rail freight vehicles, not forklifts. Victorian Energy Upgrades remains open but its activity list does not include forklifts or material handling equipment — though a warehouse can use it for lighting, refrigeration, motors and solar, which offsets charging costs.
The short answer
No. As at August 2026, no Victorian or Australian federal grant funds the purchase or hire of an electric forklift for a business.
We checked this properly — against government sources, not industry blogs — because the question comes up in almost every second conversation, and because there is currently misleading information about it circulating in our industry.
What the VFDC program actually was
The program people are usually thinking of is the Victorian Freight Decarbonisation Co-Investment Program (often miscalled a “consortium”), run by the Department of Transport and Planning. Two facts matter:
1. It closed on 6 July 2026. Expressions of interest closed 22 April, full applications were by invitation only and closed 6 July, with outcomes announced in October. The official program page states it plainly. No second round has been announced.
2. It never covered forklifts. The eligible activities were low or zero-emission freight vehicles, vehicle fit-outs for freight tasks (refrigerated bodies, tail-lifts), charging and refuelling infrastructure and costs, low-carbon liquid fuels, and new freight technologies. Eligible applicants were small-to-medium road or rail freight operators.
A warehouse, manufacturer or 3PL hiring forklifts fails that test twice: a forklift is not a road or rail freight vehicle, and the business is generally not a freight operator.
If you have seen a supplier article suggesting $300,000 was available “to switch to electric forklifts”, check its publication date. Some of that content is still online months after the program closed.
What is still open — and how it actually helps
Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) is the one genuinely open, ongoing program. Its activity list runs to dozens of upgrade types — and forklifts and material handling equipment are not among them.
But it is still worth knowing about if you run a warehouse, because the site around the forklift is eligible:
- Lighting upgrades
- Refrigeration
- Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
- High-efficiency (IE3) motors
- Commercial and industrial solar in the 30–200 kW range
That last one is the interesting one for anyone electrifying their fleet: solar generation offsets the cost of charging. It doesn’t subsidise the machine, but it does reduce what the machine costs to run. Details are with the Essential Services Commission and accredited VEU providers.
The tax angle — check the date before you rely on it
Two things people frequently mix up:
The instant asset write-off. The $20,000 threshold applied to assets first used or installed ready for use up to 30 June 2026. A permanent extension for the 2026–27 financial year sits in a Treasury Laws Amendment bill that had a Senate committee report in August 2026 but has not passed into law at the time of writing. Separately, almost no electric forklift costs under $20,000 — so even when available, this measure rarely applies to the machine itself.
The Small Business Energy Incentive (the 20% bonus deduction) expired on 30 June 2024. It is sometimes still cited in older articles.
Tax positions change and depend on your circumstances. Confirm anything here with the ATO and your accountant before it affects a decision — we’re a forklift hire company, not tax advisers.
What actually reduces the cost of switching
With no grant available, the real economics come from four places:
1. Fuel and servicing difference vs LPG. This is usually the largest single number and it recurs every week of the term. Our electric vs LPG comparison works through it, and the TCO calculator runs it against your own bottle prices and hours.
2. Operating lease deductibility. Hire payments on a genuine operating lease are generally deductible as an operating expense in the year incurred, rather than capitalised and depreciated. For many businesses this is more valuable than a one-off grant would have been — and unlike a grant, it isn’t a closed program with a deadline. Again: confirm the treatment with your accountant for your structure.
3. No capital outlay, no residual risk. A $40,000–60,000 purchase ties up capital and leaves you holding the resale risk in five years. Long-term hire converts that into a fixed weekly cost — our hire vs buy analysis argues both sides honestly, including when buying wins.
4. Avoiding the three-phase installation. If your site has no three-phase power, an electrical upgrade can cost more than a year of hire. One machine in our fleet — the EP EFL181 — charges from a standard single-phase 15A outlet, which sidesteps that cost entirely for lighter duty cycles.
If a grant does open
Programs do get announced. If a genuinely applicable one appears, we will say so here — with the government source and the closing date, not a sales pitch. Until then, the honest answer to “is there a grant?” is no, and the useful conversation is about what the machine actually costs to run.
Want that number for your site? Request a quote with your hours and current fuel spend, and the written quote includes the running-cost comparison.
Sources checked 17 August 2026: vic.gov.au/vfdc, Essential Services Commission VEU activity list, ATO instant asset write-off and Small Business Energy Incentive guidance. Government program status changes — verify current details with the administering body before relying on them.