HVO is a “biofuel” made from processed vegetable oil and is already used by major hauliers including DHL and the Royal Mail.
The council’s fleet is made up of 134 vans, of which 18 are electric vehicles, and 24 HGVs. They consume around 320,000 litres of diesel per year, which it calculated forms about 22.4% of its greenhouse gas emissions.
The council has run a programme to replace smaller vehicles with electric vehicles once they reach their end of life, but it said that reducing emissions from the HGV fleet has proved to be more of a challenge.
Councillor Emma Morley, cabinet member for operational services, explained: “Fully electric HGV waste collection vehicles remain very expensive, and many local authorities are investigating alternative fuels as a result.
“The cost of electrifying our entire fleet is estimated to be in the region of £12 million. That does not take into account the considerable investment we would need to make at our depot in Northfleet to increase the power supply to the site and install the infrastructure needed to charge the vehicles.
“That’s clearly not an option.
“The beauty of HVO is converting to it is much simpler. It’s a direct replacement for diesel and so there is no need to make any modifications to our vehicles and we can use the fuel tanks already in place for storage.”
The first delivery of HVO-fuelled vehicles was made to the council’s depot at the end of November 2024 and the council aims for all non-electric vehicles to be run on the new fuel from April.
Morley added: “HVO is a proven low-emission alternative to diesel and the only difference our residents will notice is the cleaner air we will be contributing to.”
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