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World’s largest fleet of zero emissions HGVs to take to UK roads
25/5/2022
News
The UK government has announced that over £200mn of funding will be injected into a zero emission road freight demonstrator programme to begin later this year.
Unveiling plans for what is claimed will be the world’s largest fleet of zero emissions HGVs, Transport Minister Trudy Harrison announced a three-year programme to help decarbonise the UK’s freight industry, with initial competitions for battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology to be launched shortly.
Thanks to overall running costs of green vehicles being cheaper than petrol and diesel equivalents, more efficient deliveries will in turn enable haulage companies to keep the price of goods down and protect customers from rising costs, Harrison said.
The transition to zero emission trucks will also help improve air quality, create greener jobs and deliver on COP26 pledges, while reducing reliance on imports of foreign oil. Eliminating fossil fuels from road freight and improving the UK’s energy supply resilience will help to protect drivers and businesses from increasing global energy prices, she noted.
The UK pledged at COP26 in Glasgow last year that all new HGVs sold in the UK will be zero emission from 2040, putting the country on course to be the fastest G7 country to decarbonise its fleet of road vehicles.
An open-call competition will be launched for manufacturers, energy providers and fleet and infrastructure operators to showcase their green technology on UK roads. The demonstrations will help gather evidence on the future refuelling and recharging infrastructure needed to drive the smooth transition to a zero emission freight sector by 2050.
The £200mn funding announcement expands the Department for Transport’s successful £20mn zero emission road freight trials which ran last year, delivered by Innovate UK. As part of these trials, commercial vehicle manufacturer Leyland Trucks rolled out 20 DAF battery electric HGVs for use by public sector organisations, including the NHS and local authorities, to support the uptake of battery electric trucks, enabling learning to be gathered from field testing vehicles in a real-world, real-time logistics environment.
