US payments giant Corpay teams up with Voltempo to crack the UK’s electric truck charging problem

A major transatlantic partnership could finally give Britain’s haulage industry the push it needs to go electric.

Corpay, the Atlanta-based corporate payments group valued at $20bn, is joining forces with Voltempo, the company behind the UK’s largest depot charging network for electric lorries, in a deal designed to remove the biggest barriers standing between fleet operators and zero-emission haulage.

The partnership will bundle charging infrastructure, fleet payments and electricity procurement into a single integrated system. By buying energy on behalf of customers, the two firms say they can offer operators average savings of around 20 per cent on the total cost of ownership compared with running diesel trucks, a figure that could prove decisive for an industry running on wafer-thin margins.

“We’re demonstrating that electric trucks and vans can be more profitable, more productive and ultimately better for operators’ businesses,” said Simon Smith, Voltempo’s chief executive.

The timing is significant. Diesel prices in the UK surged 28 per cent in March alone, driven by the conflict in Iran, according to the RAC. That spike has intensified the financial pressure on hauliers already reeling from a brutal few years, the sector recorded a record 503 insolvencies in 2023, with roughly 400 more following last year.

Yet despite the clear case for change, electric lorries accounted for just 1.4 per cent of truck registrations in 2025, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The Road Haulage Association estimates the upfront cost of an electric truck remains at least two and a half times that of a diesel equivalent, and public charging costs remain prohibitively high for commercial vehicles.

The UK government’s net zero roadmap requires all new lorries under 26 tonnes to be zero-emission by 2035, with heavier long-distance haulage trucks following by 2040. To support that transition, ministers recently committed £1bn in funding through to 2030 to help cover depot charging installation costs.

Corpay already has a substantial UK footprint through its Allstar brand, which handles fuel and EV charging payments for fleets and generates around 14 per cent of the group’s global revenue. The new partnership adds a practical dimension: Voltempo’s depot charging hubs can share spare capacity with other fleets via Corpay’s payment platform, creating additional revenue for site owners and improving the investment case for installing chargers in the first place.

“They can fill spare capacity and reinvest the money into more infrastructure,” said Tom Rowlands, managing director at Corpay, whose market value has grown tenfold since its 2010 listing. “It makes the investment case to put the infrastructure into their site much more appealing.”

Voltempo, a lead partner in a government-backed project to accelerate zero-emission truck deployment, has already built 35 depot charging hubs across the UK and plans to have charging infrastructure on every major road in the country by 2035.

For fleet operators weighing the switch, the message from both companies is clear: the economics of electric haulage are finally starting to stack up, and with diesel volatility showing no signs of easing, waiting may prove costlier than making the move.