By Paul Holland, MD of UK Fleet at Keyfuels 

Despite only accounting for 13.5% of the vehicles on the road, trucks and vans were responsible for 35% of vehicle-related emissions in 2019. 

Moreover, transport and logistics contribute the most to CO2 emissions.

As there are currently no feasible diesel alternatives, larger vehicles are exempt from the cut-off for the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in 2030 (2040 for new petrol and diesel heavy good vehicles (HGVs)).

For drivers and fleet operators however, they won’t be able to access the significant cost and efficiency savings of electric vehicles (EVs) and will have to pay to access the increasingly common urban clean air zones.

Why the electrification of HGVs is so challenging

Countries can experience challenges when transitioning to all-EV roads due to weight - since EVs convert about 60% of their battery power to a vehicle’s wheels. The rest would then go to a vehicle’s other functions or will be lost as heat.

While this isn’t problematic for small vehicles, larger vehicles with heavy cargo, might need additional batteries which increases the vehicle’s weight. EVs are already significantly heavier than ICE vehicles, and electric HGVs even more so.

However, changing battery technology could make them significantly smaller, lighter, and more efficient. Clearly this would be a major shift in the technology currently on the market. The improvements made to EV batteries so far have mainly been intended to stop the loss of charging capacity and making the batteries more environmentally friendly.

Furthermore, placing more batteries in a vehicle may cause overheating and is clearly something of a concern for the trucking industry. Then there is also the challenge of charging.

Ultra-fast chargers are becoming increasingly common, and these types of charge points could allow long-haul HGVs to quickly recharge without making frequent stops.

Alternatives to batteries

There are a number of alternatives to electric - hydrogen fuel cells are one possibility but another possibility is hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also known as renewable diesel, which offers up to a 90% reduction in emissions versus conventional diesel.

In hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen and oxygen are combined to produce electricity, which is then stored in a battery to drive the wheels.

The advantage here is that there are no emissions, as well as that hydrogen and oxygen can be inexpensively extracted from seawater in a sustainable or environmental way.

Trucks can have a range anywhere between 500 kilometres to 700 kilometres, making them suitable for long-haul routes, and they can be refuelled very quickly.

HVO is made from waste cooking oil, animal fats and crops that would otherwise be wasted. Unlike hydrogen fuel cells, HVO works with the diesel engines that fleets already use, so there is no initial cost to buy new vehicles.

Refuelling is no different from refuelling with diesel and existing diesel fuelling stations – which would include every fuel station in the UK – could quite easily be switched to offering HVO fuel.

However, there are some challenges to overcome for HVO to be more widely adopted. The first is price: currently HVO costs between 10% & 15% more than diesel fuel.

Secondly, the infrastructure is limited: companies exist that can supply HVO in bulk so that fleets can fuel up at their own premises, but this is unlikely to work for everyone. Lastly, not all HVO is completely recycled, and it is more likely to be found as an additive to conventional diesel than a fuel in itself. 

A possible mid-term answer could be a blend of HVO and standard diesel, which would provide part of the environmental benefits, at a reduced cost premium.

Technology may offer new solutions

There is currently a lot of competition between battery, HVO and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

While we won’t be seeing hydrogen fuel cells replacing diesel engines in HGVs any time soon, the technological and logistical problems with hydrogen are potentially much easier to solve than creating an entirely new type of battery technology.

The prospects for HVOs are quite hopeful since existing fleets wouldn’t have to replace their vehicles.

More investment in infrastructure is also needed. Efforts to change Britain’s roads have been made, and switching to HVO would require very little investment.

Although hydrogen would be more expensive, we won’t have to change every existing petrol station into a hydrogen refuelling centre since large commercial vehicles only make up a small portion of the vehicles on the road.

Government investment infrastructure could bring about a lot of innovation when developing more efficient hydrogen production and battery technology.