UK zero-emission HGV registrations fell 6.6% in the first half as EU electric truck registrations grew almost 48%, Kempower argues
Kempower's Head of Fleet Charging, Moritz Vornfeld, says the divergence is not about truck technology but about underused depot charging infrastructure, with low-margin operators facing a psychological and commercial barrier to a long-term capex bet they can't afford to get wrong.
UK zero-emission HGV registrations fell 6.6% in the first half of 2026, leaving them at less than one in 100 new trucks, according to SMMT figures cited by Moritz Vornfeld, Kempower's Head of Fleet Charging, in an opinion piece for FleetPoint. Over the same period, electrically chargeable truck registrations across the EU grew by 47.7%, according to ACEA. SMMT's third-quarter figures, published on 12 October, show the UK decline has since deepened: zero-emission HGV registrations fell 50.7% in the quarter and are down 30.9% in the year to date, at a 1.0% market share.
Vornfeld argues the divergence is not down to vehicle capability. He writes that "the barrier, increasingly, is not technical. It is psychological and commercial: operators are faced with a long-term capex decision in a sector where low operating margins leave little room for a bet that doesn't pay back."
He notes that UK support exists: the Zero Emission Truck and Van Grant offers up to £81,000 towards the heaviest electric HGVs as part of an £877 million programme running to 2030, while the first round of the Depot Charging Scheme covered 70% of charge point and civil costs, up to a maximum of £1 million per organisation. Vornfeld also points to the dates the UK has announced for ending sales of new non-zero-emission HGVs — 2035 for those up to 26 tonnes and 2040 for all new HGVs.
Vornfeld points to the average domestic HGV haul of around 105km, rising to 134km for articulated vehicles, to argue that for many UK operations the constraint is less about vehicle range than about having sufficient power available at the depot.
As an example of depot charging in use, he cites Alfredsson Transport in Norrköping, Sweden, which built a site powered by a 1.2MW Kempower Power Unit. The site ran one of the first public Megawatt Charging System sessions using the official communication protocol, delivering a peak of 728kW to an MCS-equipped Scania e-truck while simultaneously charging a second vehicle over CCS, for a combined 864kW. Rather than wait for a grid upgrade, the depot paired its chargers with a 1.2MW battery energy storage system and a 400kW solar park, coordinated by an energy management system.
Correction, 16 October 2026: we have named SMMT and ACEA as the sources of the registration figures, made clear the 6.6% fall covers the first half of 2026, and added SMMT's third-quarter figures, published the same day, which show a steeper decline.
Sources
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