RHA welcomes National Grid call to expand HGV rapid charging fund

RHA welcomes National Grid call to expand HGV rapid charging fund

17 May 2022 Posted By James Evison

We welcome analysis 78% of e-HGV charging and hydrogen refuelling can be met at motorway services, if the £950m Rapid Charging Fund was expanded for all road transport, including HGVs.

Analysis has shown that an expansion of the Government’s Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) could deliver enough capacity for the majority of electric and hydrogen HGV refuelling across England.

According to the National Grid analysis, supported by the RHA and the HGV industry, on-route electric HGV charging and hydrogen re-fuelling could be met at up to 78% of motorway service areas in England, if the £950m RCF was expanded for all road transport, including HGVs.

For what is described as a “small marginal cost increase”, there would be enough grid capacity to cover 100% of on-route HGV charging and refuelling – with the potential to realise cost savings by co-ordinating with the Zero Emission Freight Trial.

Modelling

The RCF seeks to enable £950m to deliver fast charging at more than 110 motorway service areas over the next five years. As part of the plan, it targeted six high power, open access charge points at each area by 2023 – and 6000 in total by 2035.

It models the charging profile of the UK’s HGV fleet, assuming that 70 to 90% of HGVs will be charged or re-fuelled overnight in their depot or at their destinations. For the remaining 10 to 30%, this will need to be delivered on-route.

Other sectors using the strategic road network could also then benefit from this additional infrastructure, including long-distance coaches and vans.

Important step

Chris Ashley, Policy Lead – Environment, at the RHA, said: “We strongly support the aim of decarbonising the HGV sector and welcome National Grid’s commitment to expand Project Rapid. It marks an important step in the investment needed to support a viable transition towards zero tailpipe emission commercial vehicles.”

Graeme Cooper, Head of Future Markets at National Grid, said: “Our analysis shows the importance of digging once and in the right location. Planning future charging infrastructure around connections to the transmission system can bring cost savings and reductions in the amount of infrastructure required.

“We look forward to working with government and the wider industry to continue planning the future charging network and begin delivering the interlinked energy and transport system of the future.”

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