Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support the development of electric heavy goods vehicles.

The Government recently announced that we will end the sale of new, non-zero emission HGVs less than or equal to 26 tonnes from 2035. From 2040, all new HGVs must be fully zero emission at the tailpipe.

This ambition is being supported by the Zero Emission Road Freight Trials (ZERFT). We will be building on the success of this year’s £20m programme to trial three zero emission HGV technologies at scale on UK roads: hydrogen fuel cell, catenary electric and battery electric. These trials will advance research and development in these technologies and the potential for their commercial roll out before the end of the decade.

Government grants, which have been in place for over a decade, are also in place to help reduce the up-front cost of electric vehicles. In 2020, the Government announced a further a £582m for the plug-in car, van, truck, motorcycle and taxi grants to 2022/23, and additional funding for targeted incentives was made available in November 2021. The plug-in truck grant provides grants of up to 20% of the purchase price for zero emission commercial vehicles, with up to £16,000 available for small trucks and up to £25,000 for the largest HGVs.