The 2025 Government Spring Statement has gone some way towards meeting the Road Haulage Association’s desire for financial incentives to hasten progress towards road transport industry net zero.
A Road Haulage Association (RHA) survey conducted amongst 500 HGV, van and coach operators has revealed that without financial incentives, the decarbonisation of the industry is going to be a long haul. Currently, only 9% of survey respondents run electric vehicles with 70% stating that they’d no plans to do so. The picture was a little brighter amongst van operators – two fifths of those surveyed either have electric commercial vehicles already or are planning to add them within the next five years.
The survey showed that the biggest barriers to EV adoption are concerns over limited range (45%), cost of vehicles (38%) and loss of payload space due to heavy batteries (30% of first and second choice barriers).
Commenting on the findings, the RHA said: “The Green Finance Institute has estimated that £100bn of additional finance is needed to invest in zero emissions HGVs. Unlocking that finance is critical to establishing a working commercial vehicle market – one which allows the overall cost of vehicles to fall rapidly and – in time – establish a secondhand market for SMEs working in the logistics sector. For it to happen, net zero must be commercially viable.”
Whilst not meeting the RHA’s desired figure, the Government has committed to spending £2.6 billion over the next three years. The money includes £1.4 billion to support the continued uptake of electric HGVs and vans. Some £400 million will be allocated to the rollout of charging infrastructure.