IN Brief:
- Six Volvo electric HGVs will enter service in the Midlands between April and June under the UK’s ZEHID programme.
- A dedicated charging set-up at Gotham will support two delivery cycles per vehicle per day.
- The five-year programme is expected to complete more than 12,000 deliveries and avoid more than 3,500 tonnes of CO2e.
Saint-Gobain is adding six electric HGVs to its UK fleet in partnership with XPO Logistics, as the two companies move a government-backed decarbonisation programme into live operations. The rollout forms part of the UK’s Zero Emission HGV & Infrastructure Demonstrator programme and will see five tractor units and one rigid Volvo electric truck deployed across the Midlands between April and June.
The vehicles will operate from the Saint-Gobain logistics hub at Gotham, Nottinghamshire, where the companies have also installed six charging points with Gridserve. The charging system is designed to take each vehicle to 80% in around 90 minutes and to full charge in under two hours, supporting planned delivery cycles from British Gypsum East Leake and the Saint-Gobain Midlands distribution centre.
XPO said the six-truck operation is expected to remove almost 800,000kg of CO2 emissions a year, or about 3,530 tonnes over the five-year term of the programme, while completing more than 12,000 customer deliveries. The scale of the trial gives both companies a substantial operating window to assess range, utilisation, charging performance, and day-to-day fleet integration in a live distribution environment rather than in a small pilot.
Dean O’Sullivan, CEO of Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland, said: “Trialling six zero-exhaust emission HGVs across the Midlands is another step forward for us. The extended operational trials of the all-electric vehicles are part of our wider journey to reduce the impact of our business and ultimately meet our goal to be a net-zero carbon business.” Dan Myers, senior vice president, supply chain – Europe at XPO Logistics, said the latest deployment moved the long-running partnership “a significant step closer to sustainable construction”, while Volvo said the order reflected growing confidence in battery-electric heavy truck technology for demanding distribution work.
