More funding for depot charging is welcome news for businesses working to decarbonise HGVs, vans and coaches with the latest £38 million application window under the Depot Charging Scheme recognising a fundamental principle of the vehicle transition: operators cannot invest confidently in ZEVs without somewhere practical and affordable to charge them.
Support covering 60% of eligible charge point and civil costs, up to £1 million per organisation, will certainly help turn more fleet ambitions into investment decisions for those operators that have the resources available. Also positively, the multi-year programme shows government sees commercial vehicle infrastructure as a continuing priority rather than a one-off intervention. A long-term guarantee of financial support is one of the key market signals that operators need to begin the complex process of fleet decarbonisation planning.
Funding alone, however, isn’t the silver bullet to drive decarbonisation of heavy-duty vehicles. A charger is only useful if there is ready electricity supply, so grid capacity and connection delivery must also urgently be treated as central considerations – not a time-consuming and complex administrative challenge for operators to navigate. Government’s forthcoming announcement of the HGV charging strategy is important, therefore, as is the outcome of the HGV CO2 consultation which must reflect real-world market realities.
In many cases, infrastructure support doesn’t remove the wider commercial challenge either as operators still need to make the business case stack up – which is tougher for SMEs who represent a majority of the market.
Different fleets also need different solutions. A van returning to base each evening presents a different charging requirement than a long-distance HGV or a coach carrying passengers far from its depot. Over the longer term, depot investment must be matched by reliable and accessible enroute and destination charging, including for coaches, which are often overlooked.
Future grant rates are inevitably likely to fall as the transition gains momentum but, particularly for the heaviest vehicle markets, that is some time away. Getting the market ready requires a focus now on aligning funding with grid delivery and public infrastructure, creating a workable ecosystem that makes fleet decarbonisation a much easier consideration for the vast majority.
