All Commentary articles – Page 4
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CommentaryThe world of carbon zero trucks
This week we are launching our Carbon Zero Vehicle Index, a database covering all the zero emission vehicles either coming soon or currently available on the market. It’s an impressive listing with nearly 100 different vehicle models in the dataset, although with many vehicles in small series production and some ...
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CommentaryCould this be a new approach to EV adoption?
This week we have asked Benoit Laflamme, a senior business leader focused on the energy transition of transport, to share a relatively simple solution to removing an EV adoption blocker. The transport sector is facing a massive amount of change in the coming years, we all acknowledge that. In order ...
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CommentaryTime for a rethink on weights and dimensions for carbon zero
If you joined us at Road Transport Expo for the Thursday conference sessions, you’ll know we had a great day of discussion and presentations on the topic of decarbonisation. During the course of the day we asked participants to help us to create a word cloud, answering the question: “What ...
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CommentaryHydrogen - coming in from the cold
We’ve had plenty of input from the battery electric advocates of late, so for this week’s commentary we have turned to Tim Harper, CEO of Element 2, for his input. I recently attended th FT’s Hydrogen Summit, a global gathering from 47 countries, with more than 700 registered ...
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CommentaryCleaning up the bio-fuel sector
The Renewable Transport Fuel Association (RTFA) has popped up on the radar this week, in part because its CEO, Gaynor Hartnell, is joining us on the panel at the Zemo Conference on Thursday this week, but also because it put out a statement in response to a Transport & Energy ...
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CommentaryThe costs of flexibility
In preparation for the Zemo Partnership conference taking place in London next week (15 June, City Hall, London – book your place to attend), we had reason to spend an hour on the phone to Professor David Cebon from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight last week. He will be ...
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CommentaryWhy 80% just isn’t good enough
“Hydrogen will have a place in the net zero energy mix, just not as a transportation fuel.” If you hang around this sector long enough, you’ll hear someone lob that ever so polite put down in your direction if you bring up the subject of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as ...
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CommentaryKeeping the lights on…
“What are you going to do when there’s a power cut?” It’s an innocuous enough question, but one that made Ian Greene splutter on his glass of wine, when his wife raised the question one evening a couple of years ago. Greene is the Head of Fleet at City Enviroment ...
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CommentaryHard yards ahead for the start-up truck builders
There was so much to see and write about from the ACT Expo the other week, we thought it warranted further comment. We asked industry analyst Oliver Dixon from Guidehouse to give us his perspective on the event. What a difference a year makes. Last year, the primary topic of ...
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CommentaryHydrogen hype or realistic option…?
Much news from California last week, where the state has recently brought in legislation outlawing the sale of diesel-powered trucks from 2036, and Anaheim played host to the ACT Expo event, a major gathering of the global carbon zero commercial vehicle clans. The new CARB (California Air Resources Board) regulations ...
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CommentaryDifferent continent, same challenges…
“It’s not that we can’t overcome challenges, but we don’t overcome them by pretending they don’t exist,” the words of Andrew Boyle, first Vice Chair of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and Co-President of Massachusetts-based Boyle Transportation, as he gave evidence in front of a Senate sub-committee on the future ...
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CommentaryIndustry transformation happening here and now
There has been a great deal written on industry disruption and the emergence of new start-up firms that challenge the status quo. Much of it has been framed in the context of digitization and technology, as new start-ups leverage flexibility and market speed that legacy companies cannot match. In the ...
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CommentaryHydrogen in the spotlight with HVS truck launch
Inner city Glasgow is an unlikely headquarters for the UK’s newest truck builder, but when HVS (stands for Hydrogen Vehicle Systems) took the wraps off its new hydrogen fuel cell-powered truck at the CV Show this morning, the company announced its arrival on the truck building scene - from small ...
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CommentaryStarting your carbon reduction plan
Over the past three weeks, we have tried to park the obsession with the search for the holy grail of carbon zero and focus on the steps the industry can take today to decarbonise the commercial vehicle and road freight sector. The more we scratch away at the carbon zero ...
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CommentaryUnderstanding carbon reporting: The second "R" of sustainability
Last week we focused on the first of the “three Rs of sustainability” Record, this week, we’ll shift the attention to Reporting. We’ve touched on emissions reporting previously and while it has still to be made mandatory for all businesses, we are increasingly hearing reports clients are including requests for ...
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CommentaryYou’ve got to measure to manage
Record, Report and Reduce are generally considered to be the three Rs of decarbonisation, we throw in Research to make it four as it underlines what we’re trying to do at Freight Carbon Zero. While the politicians, energy suppliers, infrastructure providers and vehicle manufacturers work out the path to carbon ...
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CommentaryEverything. Everywhere. All at once.
For this week’s commentary, we thought we’d hand the keyboard over to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and publish his call to action for the world without comment. “The climate time-bomb is ticking. But the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a how-to guide ...
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CommentaryWater is the new oil
As the pendulum of carbon zero energy source appears to be swinging back in the favour of hydrogen (at least measured by the number of recent press announcements) we’ve asked our energy expert Janet Wood to take a look at the production process and most importantly to water, the elixir of life, and the key role it plays in the hydrogen production process.
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CommentaryLet’s not consign biofuels to the scrapheap…
Last week another report was published extolling the virtues of battery electric trucks. While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that or the findings of the report, there are so many hurdles to cross before we get to this electrified nirvana, that we can’t help thinking we’re missing a few tactical ...
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CommentaryLet’s talk about skills
As it’s National Apprentice Week, let’s talk about skills. The skills the industry is going to need, and the skills it’s not going to need, as we progress to the carbon zero landing point. First, let’s separate skills from resources. The point here is about the skills, the training and ...
