Carbon emissions from UK vans have risen by 63% since 1990, new analysis shows, as cars keep getting cleaner.
While more and more people are opting for electric or plug-in hybrid cars, van drivers still prefer diesel because electric vans are much more expensive with little choice of models.
Those who opt for an electric van will find that they cannot use some public EV charging stations, which may be too small or have charging cables that are too short.
Campaigners say the next government should give businesses financial incentives to choose zero-emission vans and improve charging infrastructure.
Research by Transport and Environment, a clean transport and energy organisation, found that since 2014 there have been a million more vans on the road, almost all of them powered by diesel. Although the rise of online shopping has meant more vans, most are still used by small businesses or sole proprietors.
The steady rise contributes to a 63% rise in carbon emissions from light vans since 1990, while the rapid take-up of electric cars and taxis over the past decade means car emissions have fallen by 19% over the same period, even as the number of cars on the road has also risen overall.
Although there has been a substantial reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, deliveries are bucking this trend. Since 1990, NOx emissions from cars have fallen by 88% and from heavy goods vehicles by 91%. However, deliveries have fallen by only 38% since 1990, are higher than in 2011, and in 2015 surpassed heavy truck emissions. NOx has been linked to the onset of asthma in children, and road emissions remain illegally high in some places.
Transport and Environment’s Ralph Palmer said the rise in van emissions was “alarming”. “Despite the push for more electric vans on our roads, we are still seeing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from vans due to the continued sale of diesel vans, which is at odds with the trends we are seeing in the car market,” he said.
“Not enough progress has been made to support businesses and the self-employed in the transition.”
Oliver Lord, UK head of the Clean Cities campaign, said the UK was lagging behind European neighbors such as the Netherlands, which is working to create zero-emission logistics zones.
Lord said: “It means when you drive a van into their towns, if it’s registered after next year, it has to be electric. And by 2030, they must all be electric. The proportion of electric vans sold in the Netherlands is twice that of the UK. There’s no way we’ll clean up our air and meet our climate goals unless we do more to help businesses move away from polluting diesel vans.”
Last September, the government set a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which means 10% of all new van and car sales should be electric by the end of this year, and 100% by 2035. manufacturers failing to meet this target will have to pay £15,000 for every additional diesel or petrol vehicle sold. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 341,455 new vans were registered last year, of which 20,253 were powered by electric batteries.
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Palmer said: “There are very, very generous options that have been given to car manufacturers in the first two or three years of this scheme, which basically means we’re not going to hit the 10% mark this year. But that should actually help bring a lot more van models to market.”
Michael Salter-Church, director of sustainability at BT subsidiary Openreach, said he was “frustrated” by the number of vehicles on the market and the ZEV mandate was a “really important step”. “Our engineers really like them [lack of] noise, the ability to warm them up very quickly during winter weather,” he said.
Openreach aims to convert all of its 30,000 vans by 2031 and so far has 4,100 battery-powered electric vans, with the help of government grants of up to £5,000 per van, for a maximum of 1,500 vans per year per company.” put more pressure on manufacturer,” he said. “We were very concerned that no political party had committed to extending the electricity supply grants beyond 31 March 2025.”
Openreach has installed chargers in 2,000 of its engineers’ homes – most park at home overnight – but Salter-Church said they sometimes face charging problems while on the road. “Quite often the charging stations are designed for cars, so we’ve found limited parking spaces, short cables and sometimes we’ve found them installed in car parks where the height of the barrier means vans can’t get there. The charging infrastructure needs to be improved. “