The fleet electrification sector came together this week at Warwick Conferences to discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities across the industry.
Now in its second year, the Fleet Electrification Forum revealed that the sector was making fast progress towards electrification, with the industry successfully grappling with the issues of grid constraints, planning, vehicles, business buy-in and collaboration.
When asked if what would happen if the ZEV Mandate was weakened further, some 58% of attendees said that they would not change their plans.
Only 5% said they would reduce investment, and 16% would slow investment “slightly”.
One of the biggest barriers to fleet electrification was grid capacity and connections, which was the largest issue to grapple with (47%).
The second most popular consideration was operational constraints (27%). Highlighting the need for collaboration and business buy-in to electrification, some 15% said that internal business buy-in was their biggest challenge.
In last place was infrastructure funding, revealing that despite the useful mechanisms presented by the UK Government for electrification, such as the Depot Charging Scheme, businesses didn’t see this as mission-critical in the transition.
When asked what regulatory support or guidance would be most needed to drive forward eHGV uptake, again grid constraints and depot charging approvals was the top issue (38%) followed close behind by a clear, long term regulatory and policy plan for the delivery of eHGVs (35%).
Overwhelmingly, the key takeaway from the event for attendees was to engage more with energy partners, with 50% stating this was their most important action following the Forum.
The second most important action was split (17%) between accelerating infrastructure investment and reviewing the current fleet electrification strategy.
Find all of the content from the Fleet Electrification Forum here.
