UK: Department for Transport awards £11 million to fund trials of low carbon vehicles

The Government funding will help operators establish and run fleets of alternative dual-fuel heavy-goods vehicles by meeting part of the difference in capital cost between traditional trucks and their low carbon equivalents. It will also help meet the cost of the refueling points for use by the trial fleets, including the provision of 11 new public access refueling stations around the country.

Trials include the John Lewis Partnership, which will demonstrate a 70% reduction in carbon emissions in a wide range of articulated vehicles, by combining recent research into truck aerodynamics with technology that substitutes the majority of the diesel used with biomethane. Alongside diesel equivalents, G-Volution will trial ten 44-tone commercial HGVs using their patented dual fuel technology ‘Optimiser’ and biomethane.

Moreover, J.B. Wheaton and Sons Ltd will test 28 trucks running on CNG or LNG blended with renewable natural gas and will seek to deliver seven fixed refueling stations and five mobile stations. Besides, Robert Wiseman Diaries, collaborating with Chive Fuels, Cenex and MIRA, will trial the use of 40 new warranted dual fuel articulated trucks substituting diesel with natural gas from two upgraded public access LNG stations, one in the West Midlands and one in Scotland.

“These trials will reduce CO₂ emissions from freight and provide important information from a range of real-life situations that will increase industry confidence in low carbon trucks in the long term,” said Transport Minister Mike Penning.

Source: Technology Strategy Board