Tevva unveils first UK electric truck for mass production
The electric truck manufacturer Tevva has unveiled the Tevva Truck, the first British designed 7.5-tonne electric truck intended for mass production in the UK.
Designed with a range of up to 160 miles (250 km) in pure battery electric vehicle (BEV) form or up to 310 miles (500 km) with its patented range extender technology (REX), which has now been upgraded to use hydrogen fuel cells, the truck has been developed to deliver a combination of capability and cost efficiency. According to the company it combines a zero emissions medium duty truck with the ruggedness and resilience that is usually associated with more traditional trucks.
Engineered by a team led by Ken Scott, formerly Engineering Director at both Bentley and Alexander Dennis, and styled by Dale Grewer, former Chief Designer at Jaguar Land Rover, the Tevva Truck will be manufactured in a brand-new facility in the London Thames Freeport.
The 11,000m2 manufacturing plant is set to create an additional 1,000 skilled mechanical, software, engineering, and manufacturing jobs in the next 24 months, adding to the 60 plus jobs already created this year.
The facility is initially expected to begin manufacturing 3,000 trucks per annum by 2023.
The Tevva Truck is Tevva’s third generation vehicle, representing the culmination of seven years of engineering development and the learning gathered from over 200,000 miles (350,000 km) of in-fleet trials.
Commenting Asher Bennett, Founder and CEO of Tevva said, “Technology is transforming the commercial vehicle sector at pace, making it safer, greener, and entirely more efficient. But meaningful change is a gradual process, it must happen one step at a time, even if those changes are needed in fast succession. The Tevva Truck provides a natural transition into electrification for fleet managers, providing total peace of mind and a compelling total cost of ownership proposition, with no compromise on range and reliability and minimised compromise on payload.”
The Tevva Truck offers innovative range extension technology with its REX solution, which will be available for delivery in 2023. Compact hydrogen fuel cells recharge the battery on the move, allowing the vehicle with the integrated REX technology to fulfil longer duty cycles and carry heavier loads even further.
Future technical developments already being tested will enable the Tevva Truck to be fully charged in just one hour – facilitating double shift operations, to help reduce the total cost of ownership.
The Tevva Truck 7.5-tonne model is the first of a series of electric trucks to be manufactured by Tevva in the UK – the truck manufacturer will produce a range of BEV and fuel cell REX models up to 19.5 tonnes for the UK, European, and Middle Eastern markets.