Ban New Diesel HGV Sales by 2040..Is this actually going to happen?

We have been delivering Lo-City Driver CPC courses recently and so our interest in alternatively fueled vehicles is increasing to offer the drivers a good all round knowledge about this.

When we saw ‘ban new diesel HGV sales by 2040’ it came as a bit of a shock as we have been discussing this and how this may be a tall order based on infrastructure, availability, reliability and cost.

The National Infrastructure Commission have released a new report that gives the ban by 2040 as the latest date.

There is so little experience of drivers using or even being exposed to alternatively fueled vehicles, along with the cost of electric cars being unaffordable to drivers in the transport industry to even give them the exposure.

The fuels available are also in short supply and this is apparent through the lack of knowledge about them even when you work within the industry.

If you ask what do you know about these alternative fuels, very few know anything about them.

Most feedback from drivers in the transport industry says that they have no faith in this happening as previously diesel has been promoted as the best fuel and no one they know has yet made a change.

Or how can a company pay out for new vehicles that cost so much money and then you have to install fueling points and the ranges on some are so little that it would be totally impractical.

The alternatives being promoted are:

Biodiesel

Pure electric

Plug-in hybrid

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)

Hydrogen

And the feedback has been:

Operators may be reluctant to change

Uncertainty of reliability

Initial costs

Ongoing costs

Shortage of fuel points

Safety issues

Fear that the product becomes obsolete

So will the 2040 date be practical and will it work?

We are genuinely interested to know everyones thoughts on this and feedback.  Please email us at info@totalcompliance.co.uk