The new Tevva Truck – the first British designed 7.5-tonne electric truck intended for mass production in the UK is set to go on sale in the Middle East in 2022.
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 Thames Freeport area, in close proximity to London.
According to the firm, the global electric truck market was valued at $1.15 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $14.19 billion by 20271. In a statement it added that the Tevva Truck has been “unveiled to address the immediate industry need to electrify. Offering 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, which has now been upgraded to use hydrogen fuel cells; the Tevva Truck brings a best in class combination of capability and cost efficiency from a zero emissions medium duty truck, while offering the ruggedness and resilience of traditional trucks.”
The truck is being assembled at a 11,000m2 manufacturing plant, roughly the same size as the inside of an Olympic running track. Tevva said mass production will create an additional 1,000 skilled mechanical, software, engineering, and manufacturing jobs in the next 24 months. The facility is expected to ramp up manufacturing to 3,000 trucks per annum by 2023.
The Tevva Truck addresses established industry, reliability, and maintenance expectations, explained Tevva, adding: “Strong supplier partnerships, fleet operators can benefit from an extremely reliable BEV powertrain paired with an exceptionally robust and proven truck-derived chassis, as well as quick access to low-cost parts (be that accidentally damaged and / or normal ‘wear and tear’). Tevva is offering technologies that have been proven in real-world, in-service environments today.”
Marking the announcement, Asher Bennett, founder and CEO of Tevva remarked that 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,” Bennett added. “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 can carry up to 16 euro pallets and over two tonnes payload at 7.5-tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW). The total cost of ownership is comparable to a diesel; parity is achieved at approximately 3,000 km or when 500 litres of diesel is consumed per month.
For fleet managers concerned about range, the Tevva Truck will offer unique range extension technology with its REX solution available for delivery in 2023. Its compact hydrogen fuel cells recharge the battery on the move, allowing the Tevva Truck with the integrated REX technology to fulfil longer duty cycles and carry heavier loads even further.
