CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE STILL THE BIGGEST HURDLE

While truck makers are rolling out electric trucks in growing numbers, the charging infrastructure is not yet in place to support them in the UK, says Will Reeves, commercial vehicle section manager at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Its absence is acting as a major barrier to uptake, he believes.

The expansion of Project Rapid, a government-backed initiative to boost the number of charging points for electric cars and vans, to embrace trucks would be a welcome step in the right direction, he states.

Although it has been criticised for being inadequate compared with what is on offer in certain European countries, the Plug-in Truck Grant is a critically important incentive when it comes to encouraging operators to make the switch, Reeves contends. “However, there needs to be support for depot charging infrastructure too, given its high cost,” he says. “Furthermore, the current surge in energy costs is affecting fleet investment, so a long-term supply of sustainable low-cost energy to support electric truck charging is essential.”

Volvo is adopting the same stance. Says a Volvo spokesman: “We will keep backing our full range of products and offer the same services for as long as they are still in the marketplace.”

What Drake would certainly like to see is government supporting the decarbonisation of diesels by encouraging the use of renewable fuels. “HVO [hydrotreated vegetable oil] makes sense because it is a drop-in alternative to diesel and can deliver a 90% well-to-wheel carbon reduction,” he says. It could offer the diesel engine a lifeline, depending on its availability and tax treatment. Although it is not completely zero-emission it could potentially have a role to play from 2040 onwards, possibly in new diesel/electric hybrids that could be deployed on long-haul work if the regulations are interpreted in that way.

Adopting such an approach would deal with any range concerns and allow smaller batteries to be fitted.

“Remember that batteries contain finite resources,” Drake observes. They include lithium and cobalt, with around half the world’s supply of the latter located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, notorious for its political instability.

However, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB has recently discovered Europe’s biggest deposit of rare earth metals. Containing more than 1m tonnes, it is north of the Arctic Circle, in Sweden’s Lapland province; chilly, but sitting in a stable European democracy.

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