Twenty companies are to share £20 million in funding as part of a government programme to promote innovative methods to deploy low and zero emissions delivery vehicles across the UK. The UK Department for Transport has made the announcement as to the companies that won the money this week, which is to be administered by the Office for Low Emissions Vehicles (OLEV).

John Hayes, Transport Minister, outlined the details of the funding programme at the Sustainable Road Transport Conference in London on Wednesday.

“Each one of these successful projects will help cut vehicle emissions, improving air quality and reducing pollution in towns and cities,” said Hayes.

The funding pot is to be delivered by the OLEV as well as Innovate UK.

Innovate UK’s Manufacturing and Materials Director Simon Edmonds said: “These 20 projects around the UK will spearhead the uptake of the next generation of innovative low emission freight and fleet vehicles.

“The impact will benefit the environment, particularly in our big cities.

“It builds on the results of previous low carbon projects with OLEV , and the data collected from this new trial will be invaluable to future development and commercialisation of these vital technologies.”

The winning projects include one led by UPS – which aims to “design, tender and implement an innovative smart charging system that, together with an energy storage system, will allow UPS to exceed the current maximum number of vehicles to be charged in a depot”. The total spend for this project is £2.6m, which includes £1.33m government investment.

 
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