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The Challenge

With more than 10,000 vehicle movements passing through the Port of Tilbury each day, freight activity operates at national scale. That scale supports supply chains across London and the South East, but it also concentrates emissions and infrastructure pressure in one location.

If heavy freight is going to decarbonise in a meaningful way, it needs high-capacity charging in the places where vehicles are already operating at intensity. Incremental upgrades would not have been enough. This required infrastructure delivered at scale.

How Thames Freeport Seed Capital Enabled Delivery

Thames Freeport was established to unlock investment that might otherwise take longer to happen — or not happen at all. At Tilbury, £1 million of Thames Freeport seed capital was committed to reduce delivery risk and unlock private investment.

That early intervention reduced delivery risk and helped unlock significantly larger private investment from Fleete and its partners. It supported the grid connection, high-voltage infrastructure and civil works required to bring a multi-megawatt facility into operation within a live port environment.

This is the model the Freeport was designed to deliver: targeted public funding aligned with commercial delivery.

What Was Delivered

The result is a 5 MW shared-user charging hub with 16 rapid drive-through bays, regarded as the largest public electric HGV charging facility of its kind in the UK.

The hub provides both pre-booked and on-demand access for port tenants and passing hauliers, giving operators certainty that capacity will be available when required. The infrastructure has been designed with future expansion in mind as electric fleet adoption accelerates.

Located along the A13 corridor and supporting freight linked to the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, the facility strengthens Tilbury’s position as a competitive, future-ready logistics gateway.

Why It Matters for the Region

This project is about more than charging equipment. It demonstrates how coordinated, place-based investment can strengthen a major employment site while supporting cleaner freight operations over time.

For Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Thurrock, the benefits are practical. The port remains competitive as logistics evolves, investor confidence is reinforced, and emissions will reduce as electric vehicles begin to replace diesel fleets along key freight routes.

Decarbonisation and economic growth are not competing objectives here — they reinforce one another when infrastructure is delivered in the right place.

What This Shows About the Freeport Model

Thames Freeport brings together ports, local authorities, employers and government to accelerate investment across 38km of the Thames Estuary. By combining seed capital, tax incentives and partnership working, we help move projects from concept to operation.

The Port of Tilbury EV Charging Hub provides visible evidence of that approach. Public backing unlocked private capital, delivery partners aligned quickly, and modern infrastructure was brought into operation at scale.

It is one example within a wider programme that has already unlocked over £2 billion in investment and supported close to 1,400 jobs across Freeport sites since designation.