Efforts to have 4.25-tonne electric vans officially reclassified for MOT purposes are gaining pace with increasing evidence that a lack of test facilities could force fleets to take vans off the road.
The largest electric vans are classified up to 4.25 tonnes due to the weight of their batteries and this has caused difficulties in a number of areas, including a potential for the vehicles to require tachographs and drivers to follow testing and driving hours requirements for heavy goods vehicles.
The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) has for some time been calling for clarification on regulations for 4.25-tonne EVs. From 2018 drivers with normal category B licences have been permitted to drive such vehicles and in December 2024 the Government announced a new consultation, ‘Zero emission vans regulatory flexibility’, seeking to remove more barriers to large EV adoption.
However 4.25-tonne vans currently still fall within class 7 MOT regulations, effectively those for HGVs and meaning that the vans have to be tested from one year old instead of three and face a more stringent examination.
Earlier this month the AFP called for an official deferral on such MOT requirements, stating that fleets were finding tests almost impossible to book and were faced with taking their vehicles off the road.
Now business fleet specialist Venson Automotive Solutions has backed the call, after making a freedom of information request to the DVSA in 2024 that revealed that only 2% of DVSA test centres can conduct MOTs on the 4.25 tonne electric vehicles.
As of May 2024 while there are 23,000 test centres in the UK, just 563 Authorised Test Facilities (ATFs) and five DVSA Goods Vehicle Test Stations (GVTSs) could carry out MOT tests for electric vans weighing more than 3.5 tonnes.
Venson also highlighted a severe lack of visibility of the key data needed for Government to effectively plan for the MOTs of these vehicles, highlighting a critical gap in infrastructure readiness.
Venson Operations Director, Lee O’Neill said that the DVSA holds no data on historic and current lead times on MOTs for electric vans weighing 3.5 tonnes or above or how many have had an MOT already carried out. “According to the DVSA, this data is only held by the Authorised Test Facilities (ATF),” he said.
There remains a doubt that 4.25-tonne electric vans should require HGV tests, as they were only introduced to provide fleets with an electric equivalent of a 3.5-tonne van. This factor is being considered by the Government as part of its consultation, with a proposal to transfer the annual testing of such vehicles to the general MOT network, following the tests used for 3- to 3.5-tonne goods vehicles.
“With results of the Government consultation not due until 3rd March, fleets with 4.25 tonne electric vans are really beginning to struggle,” O’Neill continued. “With no DVSA data existing on MOTs for these vehicles, and an obvious lack of testing facilities, how did Government ever expect to plan for scheduled testing?”
He added a hope that the AFP’s call for special dispensation allowing fleets to defer testing, proves successful to avoid businesses supporting UK environmental targets by going electric from suffering commercially.
