Fleet electrification in Scotland - CILT online webinar: Monday 11 May 2026

Road transport is a major generator of carbon dioxide, and the UK Government has accepted international targets on climate change. The Scottish Government therefore invited consortia to present bids on how best to deploy available subsidy so as to ensure the most effective transition to an electrified road transport fleet, and three businesses VEV, Dynamon and Fleete came together as ScotCharge to submit their ideas to Transport Scotland for the 16 March deadline.

There is no single route to fleet electrification, nor does it need to be more than gradual in order to be impactful. Operators can instal their own charging capacity, can share someone else's (eg a bus company while its vehicles are out during the day) or can use a hub set up by a third party.

What's essential is to undertake fleet modelling so that route analysis may identify which vehicles can transition today since there is otherwise a risk of overinvestment in charging capacity that with careful planning can be proved unnecessary. For example linking charging time to drivers' hours may be unnecessarily expensive if vehicles can lay over for longer.

Planning ahead can anticipate potential bottlenecks in expanding electricity supply, including for other customers such as data centres. The opportunity may be taken to question tariffs with electricity suppliers so as to ensure a mutually beneficial pricing structure reflecting times of demand. Fleet operations are often in settings that are infrastructure-intensive, making laying of additional cables expensive, so why not consider relocating the operation closer to the power-source?

With careful consideration of the operator's requirements, it was possible - even before the Iran War hiked diesel prices - to demonstrate that for certain flows electric may already be cheaper. Impact of the batteries' weight at the upper end of payload may make it desirable to lobby for a small increase in lorry weights from 44 to say 46 tonnes. Drivers prefer electric vehicles for their greater command of the road. Electric vehicles may be more expensive upfront, but having fewer moving parts and regenerative braking makes operating costs lower.

Without subsidy China is on the brink of wholesale adoption of electric vehicles. With support to get the transition started and careful planning of which operations to electrify first, it should be possible for Scotland in a very few years to catch up.

Report by John Yellowlees.