The eHGVs will be used in a five year operational trial, based out of Saint-Gobain's Midlands logistics hub. Gridserve will supply four 350KW chargers at the hub, able to charge the e-HGVs to 80% in just 90 minutes and fully charge them in under two hours.
Saint-Gobain says the programme will be a real world trial of the trucks, as they make an expected 12,000 customer deliveries to over 50 regular customers for Saint-Gobain UK. Each of the six vehicles will aim to achieve two delivery cycles per vehicle per day across the Midlands.
This operational trial will serve merchant customers and direct construction projects across the Midlands. The investment from Saint-Gobain UK, and XPO, has been partly supported by funding from the UK Zero Emissions Heavy Goods Vehicles and Infrastructure (ZEHID) programme which was launched by the Government in 2023 to support innovative 鈥榞reen鈥� projects to roll out zero-emission HGV trials.
Dean O'Sullivan, CEO of Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淭rialing six zero-exhaust emission HGVs across the Midlands is another step forward for us and builds on the transformation we have been embarking on to move our fleet to lower-carbon HVO fuel over the last few years鈥�.
鈥淭he extended operational trials 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. We鈥檒l be working closely with customers during this period and our drivers to get their feedback and see how all-electric HGV鈥檚 at scale can fit into our logistics service offer.鈥�
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