Timber transport is not an easy place to start an electric vehicle revolution. Loads are heavy, routes can be remote, working patterns are often dictated by forests, ports, mills and weather, and diesel has long provided the flexibility hauliers need to keep timber moving.
That is precisely why the Net Zero Timhaul project matters. Funded by Scottish Forestry through the Strategic Timber Transport Scheme, the demonstrator was set up to test whether battery-electric HGVs could work in real timber freight operations, rather than in idealised road haulage conditions.
The project brought together Scottish Forestry, Creel Maritime, James Jones & Sons, Scotlog and Volvo Trucks. Two Volvo FH Electric vehicles were deployed in 2023, each matched to a different timber haulage application. James Jones & Sons has been operating a 40-tonne, five-battery tractor unit with a flatbed trailer, shunting sawn timber products from the Stevenscroft sawmill near Lockerbie to the Hangingshaws Distribution Centre at Johnstonebridge. Scotlog has been operating a 44-tonne, six-battery rigid unit with a fixed drag trailer and specialist timber body, moving roundwood from Inverness Harbour to West Fraser and other local mills in the Highlands.
The result is one of the most useful sources of practical evidence yet on what electrification could mean for timber haulage.
From proof of concept to operational evidence
The 2025 Net Zero Timhaul Progress Report shows that, by October 2025, the project was around 65% through its programme. By that point, the two electric HGVs had completed 132,309km, or 82,213 miles, avoiding 165 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. The report states that the trucks are saving just over 1kg CO2e per mile per lorry, with both drivers and fleet managers reporting positive experiences.
Year two performance was also described as consistent, with no material deviations in efficiency, availability or service delivery under normal operating demand. That is important. Early-stage demonstrators often prove that technology can move, but not always that it can settle into working routines. Net Zero Timhaul suggests electric trucks can do both, at least in the right duty cycles.
Energy efficiency across the two vehicles averaged between 0.53 and 0.55km/kWh, including the contribution from regenerative braking. That translated into an operating range of around 182km, or 113 miles, on a full battery. This is not diesel-equivalent flexibility, but it is enough to make predictable return-to-base operations viable.
As Neil Stoddart of Creel Maritime puts it in the report: “Now that we have verified field data showing it works in baseline conditions, electrification of forest logistics is no longer purely theoretical.”
The reality of timber haulage
The harder question is where the baseline stops and full forestry haulage begins. Much of the trial has operated on a return-to-base model, largely because public charging infrastructure for HGVs is still not sufficiently developed. That limits what can be tested. Longdistance motorway work, public charging costs and more variable destination routes remain harder to assess.
Forestry also places demands on vehicles that many forms of haulage do not. Trucks are often working at or close to maximum gross weight. Routes can include rural roads, forest tracks, steep gradients and remote collection points. Delays and weather can affect energy use. Winter conditions reduced range in the trial by around 15%, partly due to battery chemistry and increased auxiliary loads such as heating, although the report notes that diesel vehicles also suffer seasonal efficiency losses.
Payload is another constraint. Because 44 tonnes is the UK legal maximum gross vehicle weight, the additional weight of battery systems can reduce usable payload. The report identifies a 15% reduction in payload to accommodate battery weight in one comparison, with the issue becoming even more significant if a hydraulic timber crane is mounted.
This matters because timber haulage is not moving parcels or lowdensity consumer goods. In many cases, payload is the business model.
The commercial equation
The economics remain finely balanced. The report compares a diesel Volvo FH with an electric equivalent and highlights the scale of the capital cost challenge: around £144,000 for the diesel vehicle compared with £333,000 for the electric HGV before support.
Lower running costs help close that gap. The report’s modelling puts maintenance at £0.11 per mile for the electric HGV against £0.19 per mile for diesel, while the cost per mile comparison is £1.04 for electric against £2.50 for diesel, based on the assumptions used. However, total cost of ownership parity is not reached until year five under current conditions.
That is the commercial crux. Electric timber haulage can be cheaper to run, but it is still more expensive to buy, more dependent on grants, and more sensitive to electricity tariffs, charging access and duty cycle. Low-cost depot charging is essential. Public charging, where available, is likely to be more expensive and less predictable.
Grant support is therefore not a side issue. The UK Plug-in Truck Grant can reduce the cost of electric trucks by up to £120,000, while the wider Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme is intended to support vehicles and charging infrastructure across the UK.
Charging is the critical path
The report is clear that infrastructure will determine how quickly electrification can move beyond predictable depot-based routes. Shared depot charging, bus depot access, semi-private fleet charging and remote battery storage systems are all identified as potential routes forward.
That point is particularly relevant to forestry. Commercial forests are often located away from motorway corridors and established EV infrastructure. In some cases, temporary or mobile charging at forest sites could be needed simply to give operators enough resilience to complete shifts safely and productively.
The project’s proposed next phase would explore more remote routes, public and partner charging, and performance across a wider range of real forestry conditions. That feels like the right next step. The question is no longer whether electric timber trucks can work. It is where they work best, what support they need, and how quickly the wider system can catch up.
Electric HGVs will not solve every timber transport challenge overnight. Diesel’s flexibility, existing infrastructure and embedded cost model remain difficult to displace. Yet Net Zero Timhaul shows that battery-electric haulage is now a credible part of the answer, particularly for regional, repeatable, return-to-base movements.
The weight of timber transport is heavy in every sense – operationally, commercially and environmentally. Electric HGVs are beginning to carry some of it. The next test is whether infrastructure, investment and supply chain coordination can help them carry more.
For more info visit www.forestry.gov.scot
Read more in the latest Timber Trader magazine here
