Grid Demand
The charging infrastructure needed for all HGVs in Scotland will require at least 1.3TWh of electrical power.
Power Requirements
The electrical power requirements for a fully electric HGV fleet in Scotland are considerable. The Agent-Based Model reveals the following:
Total number of charge events = 143,319 (both at the depot and en-route)
Total charge delivered = 26GWh
Scaling the current sample size (approx. 2% of the total Scottish HGV fleet) to the size of the full Scottish HGV fleet results in a:
Total power requirement = 1.3TWh.
Note
There have been several previous estimates of electrical energy demand should the HGV fleet move to battery-electric.
Based on Road Traffic Statistics for the Scotland region9, HGVs accumulated 1.5 billion vehicle miles in Scotland in 2024, which translates to 2.4 billion kilometres. If these vehicles operated with an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/km, as used in the Agent-Based Model, the total power consumption would be approximately 4 TWh (1.7 kWh/km * 2.4 billion km). Even if efficiency were doubled, halving this figure, it would still represent a substantial 2 TWh.
Further modelling work is required but the scale of investment needed is clear.