Insight

Adoption of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses and coaches are leading the way in large HDVs, with Government capital grant support helping to reduce the total cost of ownership. However, in freight transport the rate of adoption of low carbon vehicles has been slower. In this segment, most of the change to low carbon drive trains is driven by vehicles used for local delivery, with battery electric being the favoured option.

Larger Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) delivering freight over long distances are beginning to use technologies such as battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell electric, direct hydrogen combustion and biomethane. However, diesel is expected to remain the dominant technology for at least the next 5 to 10 years.

With the direction of travel clear, there will be an increasing need for new skills to support the uptake of ultra-low and low carbon vehicles now and, increasingly, in the future.

At the forefront of the need for new skills are emergency service personnel attending road traffic accidents, potentially involving vehicles using these new technologies, and roadside recovery personnel dealing with incidents and breakdowns.

The availability of garage technicians with the skills and competencies necessary to service, repair and maintain low carbon vehicles is also an area of activity for qualification bodies, colleges and private training providers.

Those involved in selling and procuring these new types of vehicles are developing skills to help communicate performance capabilities of different vehicles under different duty cycles and local factors, additional needs in terms of charging and refuelling infrastructure, etc.

You can read more about the skills needed to support the uptake of ultra-low emission passenger and light vans and skills to support the uptake of low carbon heavy duty vehicles in the reports from two studies Optimat carried out for Transport Scotland, Skills Development Scotland and others.