UK Freight Goes Electric: Rolling Out a Low‑Carbon Future for Logistics

Welcome to Net Zero News, your daily briefing on the UK’s transition to a low‑carbon future.

In recent months, the UK freight sector has seen significant strides towards decarbonisation, with major deployments of electric heavy goods vehicles (eHGVs), infrastructure rollouts, and policy support coming together to drive green logistics forward.

Royal Mail has introduced its first eight DAF 42‑tonne XD 350E electric HGVs at its Midlands and North‑West parcel hubs. These eHGVs, supported by ABB’s high‑performance T360 chargers, operate continuously between parcel hubs and mail centres and are expected to reduce approximately 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, while also cutting operational costs. Importantly, Royal Mail already operates one of the UK’s largest electric delivery fleets, using over 7,000 vans charged on‑site with 100 percent renewable electricity. Through its participation in the Electric Freightway consortium backed by more than £100 million this deployment supports one of the UK’s most advanced public charging networks for eHGVs.

Similarly, the ZENFreight consortium has deployed its first electric HGV a Volvo FM Electric at DFDS’s Sandhills Business Park depot in Liverpool. Connected to four 360 kWh charging bays, the vehicle can fully recharge in two hours, allowing for three to four delivery cycles per day. This use case on a closed‑loop route highlights the real‑world viability of electric freight in high‑volume operations.

Fleet expansion efforts are also under way. Wincanton has introduced 24 electric trucks supplied by DAF, Volvo and Renault, expected to cut approximately 2,400 tonnes of CO₂ per year. To support their electric fleet, the company is installing depot charging across sites including Greenford, Portbury, and near Glasgow, as part of the Electric Freightway and eFREIGHT 2030 consortia within the ZEHID programme.

Furthermore, zero‑emission HGV registrations across the UK increased by 59.1 percent in H1 2025 compared to the previous year, reaching around 183 units and representing approximately 1 percent of the market. However, with an ambition to ensure all new HGVs up to 26 tonnes are zero‑emission by 2035, adoption rates must accelerate even faster.

Adding further momentum, December 2025 marked a powerful signal of growth: zero‑emission truck registrations more than quadrupled year‑on‑year in Q3, capturing a record 2.4 percent market share. The UK now ranks second in Europe for zero‑emission HGV market volume, behind only Germany. Notably, Amazon has started receiving 160 Mercedes‑Benz eActros 600 electric trucks, each with a 500 km range and a 22‑tonne load capacity, deploying them between logistics sites.

Infrastructure is growing alongside vehicle uptake. Hitachi ZeroCarbon and GRIDSERVE’s third report from the Electric Freightway project confirms that participating fleets have surpassed half a million zero‑emission miles. The analysis suggests eHGVs may reach cost parity with diesel counterparts within five years under certain conditions a major milestone in making electric logistics economically viable.

On the policy front, the Scottish Government has launched a £2 million HGV Market Readiness Fund for 2025‑26. This fund is dedicated to aiding operators, manufacturers, financiers and charge‑point providers to foster collaboration and investment towards HGV decarbonisation. Crucially, half this funding is targeted specifically at small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure the transition is inclusive across the haulage landscape.

Finally, industry leaders are calling for a broader, technology‑neutral approach to decarbonisation. Logistics UK and the Sustainable Logistics Forum have urged the Government to support low‑carbon fuels such as biomethane and liquid renewable fuels especially for heavier HGV categories where electric technology remains challenging. This pragmatic stance seeks to deploy a broad toolkit of solutions to meet net‑zero goals efficiently.

What this means:

The UK’s freight sector is entering a rapid transformation, with tangible progress in electric vehicle deployment, charging infrastructure rollout, and market uptake. Electric HGVs are proving viable operationally and economically, and are gaining scale. Government support through funding, infrastructure strategies, and inclusive policymaking reinforces this shift. Collaboration across scales, from large operators to smaller SMEs, remains key. Looking ahead, as infrastructure expands and technology costs fall, the industry is poised to accelerate towards net zero logistics.

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