DPD begins road trial of electric HGV

Parcel delivery company DPD is conducting a trial of a MAN electric HGV, with the hope of rolling out heavy-duty electric trucks later this year.

The MAN eTGX has a range of up to 497 miles and a charging capacity of up to 750 kW. It will be based at DPD’s Hinckley hub four before a full induction, training, and being assigned a route for operational testing.

This follows when DPD converted the majority of its 1,600 HGVs to Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) in 2023. 95 per cent of DPD’s HGV fleet is now running on HVO, reducing emissions by 83 per cent compared to diesel.

DPD has operated double-decker trailers for a while, which although do reduce emissions through fewer vehicles being on the road, transitioning to electric trucks is a challenge. Consequently, DPD is working with MAN to develop a configuration capable of pulling double-decker trailers and the first vehicle with that spec will bet test with DPD later this year.

As part of Geopost, DPD UK has a net zero target of 2040, which is fully validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). DPD UK has confirmed that the UK operation is on track with the trajectory required to mee the group target, after delivering a 47.5 reduction in overall emissions at the end of 2024, compared to the 2020 benchmark.