British electric vehicle manufacturer Tevva has begun production for sale of its battery electric 7.5 tonne Gross Vehicle Weight freight truck.
The company has also secured European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval (ECWVTA) for the model and says it can now plan to sell the electric truck in volume across the UK and markets in Europe.
The first electric trucks have started to be delivered from their UK base to customers including Expect Distribution, Travis Perkins and Royal Mail. The company expects to sell up to 1,000 electric trucks in 2023.
Tevva Founder and CEO Asher Bennett said: “We continue to ‘charge on’ as a company and reach new milestones, with type approval being the latest and most important landmark we’ve achieved to date. I am incredibly proud of our team who have worked tirelessly to secure this certification and get our 7.5t electric truck in customers’ hands and on the roads.
“We are on a mission to make sustainable trucks accessible at scale and believe our technology will empower the transport sector and the governments of Europe to meet their net-zero goals. By embracing both hydrogen and electric fuel sources, we can rethink the energy mix in transport, reduce strain on our electricity grid and accelerate electric truck adoption.”
Tevva claims its 7.5t electric truck offers up to 140 miles (227 kilometres) from its 105 kWh battery on a single charge, and is ideal for last-mile and urban delivery fleets. It will be followed later in 2023 by a 7.5t hydrogen-electric truck, which benefits from a hydrogen range-extender that enhances vehicle range to up to 354 miles (570km).
The Tevva trucks are being made at a facility at Tilbury, to the east of London. The company was founded in 2013 and has been testing prototypes since 2019 in partnership with UPS in the UK.
