The term “prime mover” has been around for centuries, but in Australian trucking, it means something quite literal: the heavyweight at the front of the rig, the truck doing the greatest share of the work.
This year, Winning Group - a 116-year-old Australian appliance and logistics business - took delivery of its first electric prime mover, a Mercedes-Benz eActros 300, as part of a wider rollout of 30 electric trucks across its fleet. They didn’t wait for the technology to be mainstream. They became one of the businesses that made it mainstream.
Where the UK stands on decarbonising HGVs
The UK is behind that curve. Zero-emission trucks made up just 0.9% of new HGV registrations in the first half of this year[1], and it feels like we’re still working through ideas – while the macro environment shifts around us.
Diesel has spent this year exposed to the kind of geopolitical shocks nobody can plan a business around: conflict, blockades, export bans, all landing on a fuel that almost all freight still depends on entirely.
Freight doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s one of the more crucial gears keeping the wider economy turning, which means volatility here doesn’t stay contained here.
Hydrogen was billed, not so long ago, as the other answer to decarbonise transport. The UK’s 2021 Hydrogen Strategy set out a broad vision for hydrogen across heavy transport[2], and singled out Aberdeen’s fleet of 25 hydrogen double-decker buses as a flagship example - a ‘catalyst’ for the city becoming one of Europe’s model hydrogen hubs.
Four years on, the government’s own environmental advisers tell a very different story: the Clean Air Task Force’s 2025 review[3] concluded hydrogen is likely to see only limited demand in niche long-distance HGV applications, with battery-electric set to dominate most markets.
Aberdeen is the clearest illustration of why. The same fleet the 2021 strategy held up as a flagship spent over a year parked up, after its refuelling stations kept failing, before the council scrapped the entire £13.9 million programme in February 2026 and switched to electric buses instead. The flagship became the cautionary tale.
Tactic + Tactic ≠ Strategy
It’s tempting to treat fuel duty relief as the other fix. It isn’t. It solves a short-term problem while leaving the bigger one exactly where it was - still exposed, still waiting for the next shock, just slightly better cushioned against this one.
Hydrogen and fuel duty relief are both tactics. Neither is a strategy - and new evidence keeps arriving to show how far behind they’re falling.
Analysis from the UK’s own Electric Freightway project - part of the Department for Transport and Innovate UK’s ZEHID programme - found electric trucks can reach cost parity with diesel after five years, with higher-mileage fleets benefiting most, and diesel’s lifetime emissions running up to three times higher than their electric equivalents.[4]
So the only sensible path forward is to explore battery electric vehicles- tough as that may be.
A challenge can also be an opportunity
We’re not pretending this is a simple solution. There’s real, potentially daunting work involved in getting a fleet electrified - before you’ve even ordered a truck.
(Part of what’s needed is a different relationship with energy itself. Managing your own power is a different proposition entirely - one where the fleet operator, not a distant market, has more say over the number on the invoice.)
That’s exactly why we’re here. Zenobē’s engineers and finance specialists work hard to make that transition viable and accessible at the pace your business can absorb, not the pace a headline suggests.
In conclusion
So our advice is: see where the smart, long-term investment actually sits. Be honest about how hard the adjustment can be. We are. It’s why we’re offering a free feasibility assessment: to help you see your own options clearly, on your own terms. Because we think you could be a prime mover too.
https://www.zenobe.com/trucks-commercial-vehicles/
This article is by Ian Dennis, Head of EV Fleet, at Zenobē. You can reach him at ian.dennis@zenobe.com
References
[1] https://trans.info/en/uk-truck-registrations-fall-489914
[3] https://www.catf.us/resource/recalibrating-uk-hydrogen-towards-a-demand-led-systems-based-approach/
[4] https://news.cvshow.com/news/trial-finds-costs-are-lower-for-some-electric-truck-operations
