Invest in charging infrastructure to speed up decarbonisation, RHA urges ministers

Interesting comments from Amazon as they deploy new electric HGVs on the roads for the first time. Nicola Fyfe, EU VP of Amazon Logistics acknowledged the challenges operators face to decarbonise calling for “continued industry and government collaboration to develop the national network required for widespread electric vehicle adoption."

We agree – and so do many in our sector as we revealed in our recent The Future of Fleets report which followed our industry-wide net zero survey. A lack of public charging infrastructure is a key barrier to investment in net zero vehicles with 70 percent of hauliers and 75 percent of coach operators saying they have no current plans to bring them into their fleets. Costs and concerns over vehicle performance are also significant blockers the Government and industry must work together to overcome.

There’s some welcome movement from the Government’s Zero Emission and HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme to open HGV charging points but more needs to be done. They promised £1.4bn in June’s Spending Review “to support the continued uptake of electric vehicles, including vans and HGVs,” but the detail of how this money will be allocated is not yet known.

We urge the Government to reveal plans to support investment in the electricity grid infrastructure and connections, and a residual value guarantee scheme to bring down vehicle financing costs which is particularly important for smaller operators on low margins.

We’re also calling on the Chancellor to announce an emissions-linked fuel duty rebate in her Budget to increase uptake of low-carbon fuels to ease transition from diesel to net zero fleets. Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) can reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent.