First British electric truck for commercial production launched by Essex firm
Tevva announced the launch of the new Tevva Truck at an exhibition in London today
Last updated 28th Sep 2021
A new 7.5-tonne all-electric truck has been launched by Essex-based truck manufacturer Tevva today. Intended for commercial use in the road freight sector, the truck has been developed over the past seven years before its launch.
Tevva was founded in 2013 by Asher Bennett, who worked in the field of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries prior to launching his own company. It was there that he noticed growing activity in and demand for electric cars but virtually nothing in the field of electric trucks.
The focus on trucks is important because of the sheer amount of emissions generated by the haulage sector. "Since 2000, eighty percent of the increase in Carbon Dioxide emissions has come from the road freight sector", says David Thackray, Director at Tevva. While emissions from other industries over recent years have been going down, emissions from road freight has continued to increase. This is a trend that Tevva hope their trucks can reverse.
"A car may burn 800 litres of fuel a year, but a standard truck typically burns eleven thousand or twelve thousand litres of fuel in a year. So if you want to make a difference in the race to net-zero and move the needle on climate change, our trucks have the capacity to make a much bigger impact than one or two cars", he adds.
The launch also comes a full fourteen years ahead of the 2035 deadline for truck fleet operators to shift to all-electric trucks. Mr. Thackray, "We'll be producing these trucks in the thousands from 2023. We wanted to make a real world trucks available at prices that make sense for fleet owners, now rather than in five, ten or fifteen years time".
He concedes that the up-front cost of purchasing will be expensive but stresses that running a fleet of electric trucks works out cheaper than running a diesel powered fleet, thereby making electric trucks more desirable.
The new Tevva Truck will be manufactured at a eleven thousand square metre facility in Tilbury, Essex. The organisation was founded in the county, where they've developed a steady pool of technical talent over the past few years. They hope to make available around 1,000 skilled mechanical, software, engineering, and manufacturing jobs in the next two years, significantly adding to the sixty plus jobs already created this year.
" We expect to produce anything up to 1000 jobs in our Essex facility. With the automotive industry, you would also produce seven to ten times that number of jobs in the wider supply chain. So this is going to be a big boost for the local Essex economy", says Mr. Thackray before adding that their involvement in Essex is also in line with ensuring that the county is able to build back better following pandemic induced lockdowns and industry slowdowns.
He believes the move to phase out electric cars and trucks at a rate earlier than most other countries could also allow the UK to become a market leader in electric vehicle manufacturing. "This is an opportunity for the UK to regain its vehicle manufacturing capabilities in the international market with this change and we would like to be the pre-eminent electric HGV equipment manufacturer", Mr. Thackray adds.
The new Tevva Truck is available for pre-orders now and is expected to hit the road in 2023.