Firms including global package delivery company UPS and Gnewt Cargo have won a share of £20m Government funding to reduce fleet emissions.

Gnewt Cargo has been granted £1.1m to lease 33 electric vehicles.

The firm is one of the winners of funding for the Government’s Low Emission Freight and Logistics Trial, which seeks to cut emissions and improve air quality.

Announced by Transport Minister John Hayes today, the total of £20m in funding is being shared between 20 firms that have set out plans for innovative ways to deploy low and zero emission vehicles.

The funding is being delivered by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Innovate UK.

The aim of the competition is to demonstrate new technologies and to encourage the widespread introduction of low and zero emission vehicles to UK fleets.

The UPS project will be carried out in central London and will design, tender and implement an innovative smart charging system that, together with an energy storage system, enabling UPS to exceed the current maximum number of vehicles to be charged in a depot.

Meanwhile Gnewt Cargo in Southwark, London, is being granted £1.1m to lease 33 electric vehicles to perform last-mile logistics.

And Kuehne + Nagel is awarded £1.1m for clients Whitbread, which will operate four fully electric, two range extended electric and two liquid nitrogen-cooled refrigeration vehicles on temperature controlled transport routes.

Other winning projects include from Tevva Motors, which receives £1.1m towards proving new battery range extending technology and develop a universal battery cassette.

Innovate UK’s manufacturing and materials director Simon Edmonds said: “These 20 projects around the UK will spearhead the uptake of the next generation of innovative low emission freight and fleet vehicles.

“The impact will benefit the environment, particularly in our big cities. It builds on the results of previous low carbon projects with OLEV, and the data collected from this new trial will be invaluable to future development and commercialisation of these vital technologies.”

The programme will help the UK meet its CO2 reduction targets – and represents another step towards the government’s target for all new cars and vans to be zero emission by 2040.