The scale of challenge facing the haulage industry has been laid bare by half-yearly registration figures for zero-emission trucks, which are set to be the only option allowed to be sold new from 2035/40.
Because while the first six months of 2025 saw a record number of zero-emission trucks registered thanks to a 59.1% increase in sales, the base from which this rise comes is so small that the proportion of registrations made up by EV HGVs stood at a near-trace 0.9%.
A total of 10,185 new trucks joined the UK’s fleet in H1 2025, of which just 183 were zero emission. Overall HGV registrations were down 11.2% in the first half of the year.
So rare are EV truck sales that a single unit being added to a fleet can be deemed significant enough for media to be alerted, a significant number of registrations, as well as many depot chargepoint installations, are be supported by taxpayer-funded incentives.
Nonetheless, the government appears set on outlawing new diesel trucks in little more than a decade, with sales of new sub-26-tonne units banned from 2035, and all other derv HGVs banned from new-truck showrooms from 2040 – despite a this policy having a cavalcade of issues.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which compiled the data, said the H1 drop in registrations was “unsurprising as the market continues to normalise”
Addressing the issue of zero-emission trucks, Hawes said that while “new depot infrastructure funding is welcome” he considers that “grid reform must now follow so that operators can get the chargepoints they need to confidently invest in their fleets”.
