Net Zero

Net Zero

Embracing opportunities and protecting business on the road to net zero.

UPDATED – 9 JANUARY 2026

The RHA is committed to making transport decarbonisation work and seeks to work through the technical and financial hurdles preventing implementation. For further information about our approach, see: RHA approach to commercial vehicle decarbonisation

 

Increased funding for zero emission HGVs

On 6 January 2026, the Government announced an £18m increase in funding to the Plug-in Truck Grant until the end of the 2025/26 financial year. For further details, see our briefing note here: https://www.rha.uk.net/news/news/detail/plug-in-truck-grant-additional-funding-available

 

Advice on reducing your CO2 emissions

If you run a heavy commercial vehicle fleet and wish to reduce your CO2 emissions, you may find the list of third-party websites below helpful.

Note: the RHA does not endorse the content of these websites – they are listed as sites that you may wish to consider.

Starting out

If you are starting out on your plans to reduce CO2 emissions from your fleet, you may find the following helpful:

  • Connections Guidance Tool – produced by the Energy Networks Association (ENA), this web-based tool:
    • helps you understand how much electricity you will need at your depot to charge electric HGVs
    • points you to your local electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO) so that you can initiate discussions on how you can get the required electricity to your depot

See: https://www.energynetworks.org/industry/connecting-to-the-networks/transport-connections-guidance

 

 

Understanding how much CO2 emissions you produce

 

Other practical steps you can take to reduce CO2 emissions

  • Freight Portal – the Freight Portal provides practical advice on how you can reduce emissions from your existing diesel fleet. See: https://thefreightportal.org/
  • UK Climate Business Hub – the UK Climate Business Hub provides practical advice on how you can reduce emissions from your business. See: https://businessclimatehub.uk/

 

Other useful guides

 

About the Zero Emission and HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme

For general information about the £200m Government-funded Zero Emission and HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme, you may find the following links helpful.

About the consortia trialling the zero emission HGVs:

Project JOLT

Project JOLT is an independent trial of electric HGVs run by the Centre of Sustainable Road Freight. More information about Project JOLT can be found here: https://jolt.eco/

 

Government policy documents on Net Zero

For information about the policies by the UK and devolved governments to decarbonise commercial vehicles, you may find the following helpful.

 

 

RHA approach to commercial vehicle decarbonisation

The RHA is committed to making transport decarbonisation work and seeks to work through the technical and financial hurdles preventing implementation. To inform both our work and that of others, we seek to provide constructive and evidenced feedback

When HGVs account for around 16% of UK domestic transport emissions, we know our sector must play its part to decarbonise. Our success in improving air quality where nitrogen oxide emissions have fallen by over 70% since 2013 shows how decarbonisation can be achieved with investment in vehicle standards and new technologies.

Our end-goal is to see an adequate supply of affordable zero emission HGVs, coaches and vans via a vibrant seco-d hand market. This is to ensure our vital small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) businesses, who make up 95% of the logistics and coach sectors, can acquire the vehicles they need to thrive.

To meet this end-goal, we aim to shape the conditions that deliver a viable transition and give our membership the tools and information they need to make investment decisions that are consistent with the net zero objectives defined by the Westminster and devolved parliaments.

Guiding our approach, we have defined a high-level “roadmap” setting out how the planned new diesel HGV phase-out dates of 2035 and 2040 can be achieved.

To help our sector prepare for decarbonisation, we welcome the phase-out dates for new diesel HGVs specified by the previous Conservative Government which are:

  • for HGVs under 26 tonnes gvw, from 2035
  • for all HGVs, from 2040

This provides the certainty the sector needs to plan vehicle replacement cycles. At the time of writing, we await similar phase-out dates from the Government for new diesel coach sales.

We also welcome the Government’s investment in the Zero Emission and HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme – this £200m investment will trial how battery and hydrogen fuel-cell HGVs will perform, with data arising from ZEHID helping operators plan their investments.

Many of our members are already undertaking initiatives to decarbonise their operations and improve their impact on the environment.

These include how businesses are reducing emissions from their existing vehicles as well as making their business operations more energy efficient, in many cases to attract new customers and drive further business opportunities.”

 

“The future of fleets” – RHA Net Zero survey on operator-readiness (2025)

Summary

In June 2025, the RHA published the results from the first industry-wide survey to understand operator readiness for Net Zero – see: https://www.rha.uk.net/Portals/0/PolicyCampaigning/RHA_Net%20Zero%20Survey%20Report_FINAL.pdf

From a starting point where the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported in April 2025 that there were fewer than 600 registered electric HGVs on UK roads, the survey was conceived with three broad aims: to understand how many fleets already have electric commercial vehicles within them; to bench-mark operator readiness to decarbonise; and inform the next set of conversations with the RHA’s key partners involved in delivering Net Zero.

The clear message from our survey is that Net Zero must be commercially viable with costs minimised and payload loss concerns for HGV operators rectified. Vehicles which transport goods and passengers are working vehicles which must pay for themselves, and this is especially critical for an industry operating on wafer-thin margins of typically 2%.

We also observe that, for decarbonisation to succeed, three conditions must all be in place:

  • availability of zero emission vehicles for the right job
  • access to energy infrastructure
  • access to affordable finance

Our survey showed that, in 2025, these conditions are not yet in place for many operators.

Analysis

Our survey found that 23% of HGV operators, 39% of van operators and 17% of coach operators plan to bring electric vehicles into their fleets within the next 5 years and in some cases are already using them. In addition, 12% of HGV operators planned to bring a hydrogen-powered vehicle within their fleet within the next 5 years, proving that there is demand for hydrogen-based solutions to decarbonise the commercial vehicle fleet.

However, our findings also reflected the very real challenge of meeting the UK’s Net Zero targets, with significant additional support and investment needed if planned targets are to be met. In our survey, 70% of HGV operators, 75% of coach operators and 56% of van operators reported having no plans in place to introduce zero emission vehicles into their fleets.

When asked why, operators across the different vehicle modes consistently ranked lack of vehicle mileage and cost as the main barriers preventing them from doing so as depicted in the following table.

Percentage of operators ranking cost or lack of vehicle mileage as their top barrier

 

Cost

Lack of vehicle mileage

Van operators

35%

47%

HGV operators

38%

45%

coach operators

45%

51%

 

An additional issue concerned payload loss for HGVs weighing 44 tonnes where the 2-tonne derogation to accommodate batteries does not apply. Whilst only 6% of HGV operators ranked payload loss as their top barrier, the issue was of higher importance when second choice barriers are also considered where 30% of HGV operators ranked it as their top or second barrier.

Next steps

We have followed up on the payload loss findings by running a separate survey to understand the extent and impact of the payload loss issue for operators. The survey closed on 30 November 2025 and we are currently analysing the results. We aim to publish our findings in February 2026 – this is so we can have informed conversations with the Department for Transport on whether regulated HGV weights and lengths should change to provide appropriate solutions for affected operators.

Guided by our Net Zero Forum, we also continue to focus our efforts to ensure the energy infrastructure to power zero emission commercial vehicles is in place, and that acquiring these vehicles is affordable.

Our Net Zero Survey report and its detailed findings can be found here