Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the total cost of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme to date; whether any underspends or project delays have been identified; and what measurable increase in zero-emission HGV adoption has resulted.

The Government has committed up to £200 million to the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) to deploy zero emission HGVs and their associated recharging and refuelling sites, most of which will be delivered by March 2026. ZEHID is making good progress with 295 of a possible 319 zero emission HGVs ordered to date (86 already delivered and in use by haulage companies) and 73 planned infrastructure locations (14 already operational). A few HGVs and infrastructure sites may be operational slightly after March 2026 and this is being carefully managed by Innovate UK, our delivery partner.

All project spend is forecast to be complete by the end of the current financial year (March 2026), and while there has been some underspend against the project’s original budget, this was due to changes initiated by projects themselves as they refined approaches following original bids submitted in 2022.

While ZEHID has been operational, there has been a measurable increase in zero emission HGVs, going from 478 when ZEHID launched in late 2022 to 1,158 in June 2025.