Low emission freight is growing significantly in the UK, but Downing Street goals are still a tailpipe dream.
According to data published by Inverto, there were 88,787 electric lorries and vans on British roads by the end of December 2024. This is up 31% on the 67,678 registered 12 months earlier.
Despite making sizeable inroads, the overall figure still represents just 1.4% of the 6.2million freight vehicles in the UK. Westminster has currently set a target for 2% of electric vehicles to be electric, with recent suggestions this could be lowered cited as indicative of the conflicting messages around transition which are doing nothing to encourage swifter adoption.
‘The expansion of the commercial EV sector is expected to continue slowly. The main commercial EV expansion challenge facing logistics firms is the high cost of purchasing or leasing EV freight fleets. High interest rates make it more difficult for fleet operators to finance commercial EVs,’ said Kiren Pandya, Principal at Inverto.
‘Given the higher prices of EV vehicles, the cost of financing has become a key barrier to adoption, despite the growing number of green policy initiatives, such as the pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2035,’ they continued. ‘There are practical challenges which are slowing the transition. For example, limitations to current battery technology means that there are very few options for switching Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to electric which is why the number of electric HGVs is just 0.02 % of all HGVs.’
Image: JUICE / Unsplash
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