The announcement was made at the LowCVP Conference by transport minister Andrew Jones and, along with the £15m vehicle fund, a further £4m was pledged for infrastructure, which will be led by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The existing government Low Carbon Truck Trial has helped put over 300 gas-powered HGVs on the road with supporting infrastructure. However, says FTA, higher costs, limited infrastructure and reliability are key barriers to uptake of alternative fuels and low carbon technologies.
Rachael Dillon, FTA’s climate change policy manager, says: “This second funding programme will help encourage take up by supporting research and development into new technologies with operators at the heart of consortiums that will be formed.
“While we welcome the funding, we also urge OLEV to consider how it can further support industry with grants. These currently exist for the car and van sector and we believe the freight sector would also benefit from them.”