Transport Scotland is offering grants of up to £20,000 for smaller Scottish hauliers to consider what technologies, grid connections, routes, infrastructure and vehicles will best suit their needs if they move to electrify their fleets. The funding is part of the Transport Scotland’s Heavy Good Vehicle Market Readiness Fund and is designed to support Scotland’s micro, small and medium hauliers better understand their pathways to decarbonisation.

The grant funding is for operators with fewer than 50 vehicles. They are expected to use the funding to produce a report giving the fleet operator and Transport Scotland an understanding of what the short, medium and long-term solutions for decarbonising the HGVs in the fleet are. Transport Scotland says this should include “technology shift, energy requirements, use of shared infrastructure, timelines by which each vehicle/route type would be zero-emission, new viable financing options such as truck-as-a-service or energy-as-a-service which may enable adoption earlier”. A non-commercially sensitive version of the report will be shared with other fleets “in order to support sector-wide understanding and confidence in the transition”.

Transport Scotland said the majority of HGV operators in Scotland have only one or two vehicles registered on their licence and “therefore do not have large amounts of capital to invest in the transition to zero emission vehicles”. It acknowledged that public funding will be needed to help the sector get over some of the initial capital costs and absorb some risk of new fleets of vehicles and their supporting charging infrastructure. The reports from the Market Readiness Fund will feed into discussions on future strategy.

Applications can be made at any point up to 9 December, when the application window closes, to fleetsandinfrastructure@transport.gov.scot. Once a Grant Offer Letter is issued, the company will have approximately 12 weeks to complete the report. All funding must be claimed before 31 March 2026.

Read the guidance and download the application form here.

The Market Readiness Fund is currently assessing applications to a separate funding stream which offered grants of up to £150,000 to enable collaborative working between HGV sector partners, in order to create a business case for investment into zero emission HGVs and associated charging infrastructure in Scotland. Up to £1 million is available in total and the business cases will identify how support from government can be leveraged against private sector investment, including developing a shared understanding of which regions, routes, and supporting financial models would be most effective.

Transport Scotland expects that a roadmap to achieving HGV decarbonisation will have three phases:

  • · Short Term (2025-2026) – Foundational and preparatory activities to build investor confidence, enhance operator capability and generate evidence for multi-year funding.
  • · Medium Term (2026-2029) –Transport Scotland supporting consortium-led HGV decarbonisation projects, which demonstrate viability of zero emission HGV and charging infrastructure in Scotland. Projects leverage private investment at scale and aim to create a self-sustaining market.
  • · Long Term (2029 – 2035) - Zero emission HGV uptake is accelerated through unlocking private investment.
Janet is currently the editor of New Power (www.newpower.info), a monthly report and database on UK power sector development and the UK’s evolving energy industry. She has been a journalist covering the power and energy sector for 25 years, covering technology, policy and politics as editor of magazines including Power Engineering, Asian Electricity, Middle East Electricity and Utility Week.View full Profile

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