The push to electrify heavy goods vehicles

The United Kingdom faces considerable challenges in reducing road emissions. A stalwart of this push will be seeking to significantly increase the number of electric heavy goods vehicles on the roads as, presently, eHGV's account for just 0.3% of the UK's HGV fleet. Continued cooperation between governmental and nongovernmental organizations is required to achieve a positive outcome and manufacturers and developers must continue to directly address operators concerns in order to achieve the 2040 goal of transitioning to zero emissions vehicles.

The haulage industry has previously raised a number of concerns regarding the adoption of eHGV's. Many of these mirror more general reservations regarding electric vehicles, such as range limitations and charging times, but a number are more industry specific. For example, hauliers are rightfully concerned at the considerable investment involved in acquiring eHGVs. Whilst evidence from the UK is currently limited, the International Council on Clean Transportation has suggested that a new eHGV - a Peterblit 579EV - could cost up to $510,000 a unit. The comparable diesel vehicle currently retails for around $150,000.

Further, hauliers may be concerned about the lack of technical support for new eHGV's. As new brands enter the UK marketplace, they must ensure that an adequate level of support is available to service high-usage vehicles and ensure customer satisfaction.

To address these concerns and ultimately reduce carbon emission, the previous government launched the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Development Programme. In consortium with thirty-three enterprises and non-governmental organisations, the programme aims to considerably develop the infrastructure required to successfully implement a nationwide network of eHGVs. Presently, the government has invested £62.7 million alongside over a £100 million of private sector investment to implement an electric freightway of high voltage charges. The scheme has further purchased 140 eHGV's in a hope of demonstrating the potential of the electric freightway to operators. The current Labour government has not indicated that they intend to cancel or scale back this policy and, to achieve actual results, the government must continue to invest in infrastructure and continue to offer sizable grants to haulage operators.

Manufactures and develops must further continue efforts to improve range, battery longevity and maintenance offerings. The long awaited Tesla Semi offers a projected range of 500 miles per charge with an average energy consumption of 2kWh. Whilst the range is impressive, this is considerably below that of comparable diesel HGV's. Charging times have not been directly advertised, but Tesla have noted that the Semi can recover up to 70% of its range in 30 minutes using a Tesla Semi charger. The UK does not currently have a workable infrastructure for Tesla Semi chargers and there have been few indications that this is imminent. Further, Tesla and other manufacturers are yet to confirm how they intend to service their eHGVs' Organisations, like Tesla must labour to ensure that the product, which has clear market potential, does not fall into obscurity as a result of a lack of charging infrastructure and support.

To briefly summarize, the government of the United Kingdom continue to make clear strides in their push to electrify the haulage sector and have made a sizeable investment to reflect this. They must continue to liaise with non-governmental organisation to achieve measurable results, but evidence demonstrates that manufacturers may need to "step up" to reflect considerable governmental input.