The noise around decarbonisation centres largely on zero emission solutions but Scania’s UK sales director, Mark Bridgland, argues multiple fuels can contribute to lowering emissions before legislative deadlines come into force.
“Nothing in the economy works without trucks,” Bridgland explains. “If we can start to transition to more environmentally friendly products, whether that’s bio gas, LNG, battery electric or hydrogen, that will start to have a real impact for everyone.”
Looking at the current landscape, Bridgland says: “Take HVO, take biogas, we’ve got all these options that are significantly reducing CO2 levels, the problem is they don’t meet with the original target of zero emissions.
“I would like to see the government looking at ways that we can drop transport emissions a lot quicker. It won’t be zero, but zero emissions absolutely needs to be the aim. I think there are different journeys that we could take to get to zero than what has currently been set up.”
CNG an interim fuel
Long term, Scania believes battery electric vehicles will be its core product lineup but in the short to medium term, CNG is seen as a good transitional fuel. “CNG is a really good stepping stone for a lot of our customers before taking the significant step to electrification,” Bridgland says.
While the upfront cost of a CNG truck is around £15,000 to £20,000 more than an equivalent diesel vehicle, operators benefit from similar mechanics and cheaper running costs. CNG Fuels, which operates 15 bio-CNG refuelling stations in the UK, estimates operators save between 30 to 40% on annual fuel bills compared to diesel, all while cutting well-to-wheel emissions by up to 90%.
Over the past year CNG Fuels has dispensed more than 56,000 tonnes of bio CNG to vehicles from 168 fleets across the UK. While the wholesale price of gas can impact CNG prices, fuel duty for natural gas is fixed at 22.57p/kg (approx 18.6p/ltr of diesel) until 2032, compared to diesel at 57.95p/ltr.
“Earlier this year, we launched our 6x2 CNG tractor unit and that’s got a huge amount of interest because it allows fleets to do the operations they’re doing now with that flexibility and lower CO2 emissions,” Brigland explains.
How are operators using eHGVs now?
While CNG is a good solution for some fleets, others will be ready to make the switch to electric on certain routes. “If you look at the overall numbers in terms of EV adoption, it’s growing, but it’s still in its early stages in the UK,” Bridgland says. “There’s a multitude of reasons for that, but we’ve had a lot of customers drive a battery electric vehicle and in terms of how it drives and its performance, they’re generally blown away by them because they’re very torquey, they’re quick and they’re powerful.”
To sate the UK’s appetite for 6x2 tractor units, Scania plans to add this configuration to its electric product range in the future. “In the meantime, the 4x2 tractor is more than capable for most of what customers are going to be using it for,” Bridgland says.
Until more infrastructure is installed at depots and on key transport routes, Scania is facilitating electric demonstrators with mobile chargers. It goes without saying that charging is a huge hurdle in the deployment of eHGVs, so Scania founded the charging company Erinion to offer infrastructure support.
“If we’re talking about depot charging, which is a really important part if you’re going to do this on any significant level, it’s quite complex. You’ve got the charging hardware, groundworks, communication with energy providers, there’s so many different elements that aren’t particularly joined up. Erinion tries to simplify that for the customer so they have one point of contact and we look after all of that for them,” Bridgland says.
Alongside charging infrastructure expertise, Scania works with customers on route analysis to work out where eHGVs can slot into a fleet. Visibility of fleet movements helps the company to advise which alternative fuels could be suitable with minor operational tweaks.
Take control of eHGV TCO
Amongst the key concerns from operators about eHGVs, Bridgland says infrastructure and total cost of ownership (TCO) are the two most frequent topics raised. “The ultimate aim over the coming years is to get to a point where TCO should be brought down if you take into consideration using depot charging rather than having to recharge on the motorway.
“The charging infrastructure is certainly a challenge but that’s improving. I think with the likes of the ZEHID scheme and more businesses starting to work on charging solutions, that will really help.”
Bridgland points to the example First Bus is setting by allowing its bus depots to be used for charging during the day since its buses only need to charge at night. This shared semi-public infrastructure is becoming the prevailing ideal-world view of commercial vehicle charging. A shared approach will expand the operational potential of eHGVs and allow fleets who are unable to install charging either due to grid connections or financial constraints to still deploy eHGVs.
What is the future of hydrogen in transport?
For hard to decarbonise transport applications, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are currently the only other zero emission solution. Under the ZEHID programme, Scania will be providing at least one prototype, left hand drive FCEV which is due to be deployed at the start of 2026. Bridgland says: “Across Europe, in total we’ve got 20 to 30 of these vehicles, so we’re trying them in different markets.”
Considering the challenges associated with deploying FCEVs, he says: “Number one is infrastructure and the transportation of hydrogen is not an easy thing to do. The other issue, which I suppose impacts the UK more than some other markets at the minute, is green hydrogen production.
“I think longer term where green hydrogen production could work is if we get significant amounts of wind farms and we have excess electricity production that could then be utilised rather than going to waste or having to have battery storage. Ultimately, if we look at well-to-wheel in terms of overall efficiency, then battery electric vehicles are still the best route. But I think there will potentially be some applications for hydrogen in the future.”
Deploying the first FCEV through the ZEHID programme will be a chance for Scania to gather data on the technology to better understand how it could work most efficiently for fleets. Since hydrogen infrastructure is in its infancy even compared to eHGV charging provision, this technology is expected to take some time before it comes to market in any comparable way to eHGVs.
What do operators need to do to start planning for the future of their fleets?
While the enforced switch to zero emission powertrains can seem like a long way off, Bridgland urges operators to start having conversations about their options now. “I think the important thing is to think long term,” he says. “It’s going to be very unlikely that customers will transition their entire fleet straight over to battery electric because it’s costly and they need to do testing.
“When we talk to operators about charging infrastructure, we could put two chargers in for two electric vehicles but it’s about thinking what the transition is going to be over the next three, five, 10 years. When we set up that charging infrastructure, we want to make sure that it can be expandable to what they’re going to need for the future.”
Bridgland says by having these discussions now, fleets can start to build a strategy to decarbonise and identify opportunities to move to low emission fuels like CNG now with minimal financial impact. “It’s about working together so that we can make sure we’ve got that long term plan for them and we can help them on that journey,” Bridgland concludes.
