New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
On the road to net zero
26/1/2022
8 min read
Feature
The route to decarbonising road transport fleets is complex. Here, Matthew Alabaster, Panos Stergiopoulos and Adrian Del Maestro from PwC Strategy&, highlight some of the pathway options on the UK road to net zero, which are likely to be reflected globally.
As companies make their net zero pledges, one of the first areas they focus on to decarbonise operations is their road transport fleets. These fleets can be large, so transitioning to zero or low emission vehicles can make a major difference to a company’s environmental performance.
However, the route to decarbonisation is complex and can be overwhelming for many organisations. Which charging model (such as depot-based or home) is the optimal one for a company? How can fleet managers encourage employees to adopt electric vehicles (EVs)? What are the preferred technology solutions for heavy transport? These are just a few of the challenges many companies face when starting on this journey. Getting it right can strengthen a company’s brand, as well as its environment, social and governance (ESG) credentials. Getting it wrong will not only prove costly, but will undermine operations.
In the UK, around 6mn vehicles on its roads today are part of a vehicle fleet – delivery vans, buses, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and other specialist transport, operated by organisations of all sizes across the public and private sectors. Some of the categories within fleets, such as vans, are large segments in their own right. There are some 4.6mn vans in the UK, of which about 3.5mn are within fleets.