A government-funded project to roll out electric HGV infrastructure across the country is expecting sign-off from landowners and network operators this month, with charging depots expected to be installed shortly.
Gridserve’s Electric Freightway programme will support and monitor a fleet of up to 140 eHGVS as well as install 200 chargers at MSAs, truck stops and commercial depots.
The project, backed with more than £62m from the department for transport and Innovate UK, aims to find out whether electric trucks are more or less expensive to run than diesel variants; what causes variations in efficiency and battery range; their environmental impact and if public charging is an economical and practical option for haulage operators.
Once the infrastructure is built, Electric Freightway, which has 33 consortium members, will run until July 2025 and then there will be a further five years of data gathering and evaluation.
