The challenges to electrifying commercial and heavy goods vehicles

 

Giles Benbow, senior manager for business and partnership development at Mer, considers why electrifying commercial and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) is crucial for the net zero transition and the challenges that fleet managers are facing.

 

The electrification of commercial and heavy goods vehicles is a less explored narrative in comparison to the electrification of other road transport vehicles like cars and vans. But the factors driving the transition to electric mobility – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the need for cleaner air, decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels – are all applicable, even more so, to the case for electrifying commercial vehicles.

Whilst the transport sector is responsible for 26% of the UK’s total emissions, HGVs alone account for 19% of domestic transport emissions – 4.3% of overall UK greenhouse emissions – and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) for 16% of emissions. Together, they emit 34 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e). Electrifying the UK’s commercial vehicles will take a great deal of carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. All-electric and hydrogen truck fleets will cut the UK’s annual CO₂ emissions by 21.1 million tonnes. As well as having an impact on the wider net zero narrative, electrification will also help companies and businesses reduce their own emissions.

 

We are starting to see a shift in the commercial and heavy goods transportation sector. In 2022, almost 66,000 electric buses and 60,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks were sold across the world. Over half of London’s black cabs are now zero-emission capable (ZEC), reports at the end of 2023 revealed. Looking to the future, it is predicted that ‘the majority of new trucks sold in China, the European Union, and the United States will be electric’ by 2035, and SMMT data highlights that in the UK, the battery electric vehicle (BEV) share of the LCV market is expected to rise to 10.1% in 2024 and 14.1% next year.

 

We do have a way to go to achieving the zero-emission vehicle mandate of BEVs representing 10% of the market in 2024, though. Read more

 

Source: LOGISTICS MANAGER

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