Gridserve has opened the UK's first public charging hubs for electric trucks at Extra Baldock on the A1(M) and Moto Exeter on the M5.
The hubs are the first of seven due this year under the Electric Freightway, a programme working since late 2023 to get charging infrastructure and electric trucks deployed together rather than waiting for one to justify the other.
That wait has been the problem. As of mid-2025, the UK had just 5 public sites where an electric truck could charge; Germany had 50. Fleet operators won't order vehicles they can't refuel on longer routes, charging companies won't build sites without trucks to use them.
The Electric Freightway consortium - Royal Mail, Amazon, A.F. Blakemore, Maritime Transport and 21 others - exists to move both at once, with the hubs open to any operator rather than just consortium members.
"The Electric Freightway shows that zero emission freight is no longer a future ambition but a live, operational reality," said Gridserve CEO Daniel Kunkel. "We hope it can give fleet managers the same confidence that the Electric Highway has given electric car drivers."
Extra Baldock opens with six HGV bays, Moto Exeter with four. Both use drive-through layouts with raised screens and connectors for cab height, designed around haulier input on turning circles and dwell times. Tamworth, Thurrock, Leeds, Chester and Strensham North follow later this year.
To mark the opening, a DAF XF Electric - the 2026 International Truck of the Year - ran the 200 miles from Exeter to Baldock.
The programme is one of four under the Department for Transport's £200 million Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator scheme. Electric Freightway's cut is £62.7 million in government money, topped up by consortium members to over £100 million, targeting 140 electric HGVs and 200 chargers by 2030.
HGVs account for 1% of UK road vehicles but 16% of transport emissions, and fewer than 1% of new registrations are currently zero-emission - a gap that needs to close quickly if the government's 2035 and 2040 phase-out dates for new diesel trucks are to mean anything.
