Decarbonising commercial vehicles

BVRLA members have almost 800,000 rental and leased vans on their fleets, accounting for 1-in-6 on UK roads, and are responsible for buying up to 65% of new vans sold each year in the UK.

Vans are of huge importance to the UK economy. One in ten workers – 3.4 million people – rely on a van for their job across a broad range of industries, from engineering and construction to emergency and rescue services, according to SMMT 2019 data. The van parc is growing exponentially at a rate double that of cars, given the rise in self-employment and online retail. Vans are also essential tools for transporting equipment, supplies and people to support small enterprise, aid healthcare provision and lay critical national infrastructure, such as broadband, to facilitate wider economic activity.

Due to the diversity of the sector, there is a huge variety in van type based on their individual use cases. For example, a van transporting commercial goods may have onboard refrigeration, whereas an emergency vehicle may carry heavy medical machinery that requires power to operate. These specialisations pose unique challenges for van electrification, varying electricity demands, payloads and effects on vehicle range.

Electric van technology lags significantly behind electric cars. While the car market is already seeing its third and fourth generation electric vehicles, no electric vans are yet capable of delivering longer ranges or towing. Given the growth and economic importance of vans, a special focus on vans is needed if this sector is to achieve parity with the more developed car market. This segmented approach must consider the challenges of supply, demand and infrastructure for the electric van market and develop policies to resolve them well before 2030.