What We’re Asking For
The UK has the policy direction. It doesn’t have the delivery system. Vehicle mandates, infrastructure funding, grid reform, workforce planning, and energy policy are all owned by different departments, moving at different speeds. Nobody owns the whole picture.
These are four things government should do now to turn ambition into trucks on the road.
Say it's battery electric, make it binding, and the trucks will come
Battery electric is the future powertrain for the vast majority of road freight. Government should say so clearly and back it with a binding regulatory framework. Operators are waiting for a signal that isn't coming, and every year of ambiguity gives them a reason to delay. Markets with clear regulatory signals get the vehicles first. The UK needs to be one of those markets.
Fund infrastructure, not individual trucks
The Plug-in Truck Grant subsidises vehicle purchases for operators who would often buy anyway. Meanwhile, a single depot grid connection can cost six or seven figures and take years to deliver. Public money should go where it unlocks the most transition: shared charging hubs, grid connections, and enabling works. A vehicle grant helps one operator buy one truck. An infrastructure investment lets every operator on that connection electrify.
Recognise fleet operators as energy-intensive industries
A depot charging 20 electric HGVs overnight has the power demand of a small factory. But logistics operators don't qualify for climate change agreements, energy cost relief, or strategic grid priority. Government should extend EII support mechanisms to operators electrifying at scale. You can't ask hauliers to take on industrial energy loads and treat them as retail customers.
Create a National Freight Transition Authority
DfT owns vehicle mandates. DESNZ and Ofgem own grid capacity. Local authorities own depot planning. National Highways owns corridor charging. DfE owns workforce. Nobody coordinates them. We're not asking for a new regulator or a new funding body. We're asking for a single point of accountability for whether the transition is actually happening.