Tevva’s Zero-Emission & Cost-Effective Electric Trucks
Working at an EV startup can be a rollercoaster ride, and having a talented and committed team makes Tevva an exciting place to be. As a new entrant into the truck OEM space, the company is keen to maintain the agility and customer focus this affords them, meaning colleagues have to wear different hats and take on challenges outside of their comfort zone, giving great opportunities for personal growth.
Stuart Cottrell is the Head of Energy Services & Government Partnerships at Tevva. He finds the right partners and suppliers to work with Tevva, to provide charging and refuelling solutions that suit the needs of customers and ensures a seamless operation of products in the field.
Secondly, Cottrell looks after Government Partnerships, covering a range of topics from policy development to innovation funding.
“I’ve been working with heavy vehicles for my whole career, working across the full spectrum of heavy-duty powertrains from diesel, various flavours of hybridisation and zero emissions,” said Cottrell.
For Cottrell, it’s been an interesting journey to see how attitudes and technology have changed during this time as awareness, appetite and policies around air quality and climate change have come to the fore in many industries.
“Tevva has a very clear mission and is working to fix a huge problem in decarbonisation of the freight and logistics sector,” Cottrell shares “Having that focus and drive towards a very honest and much needed goal really chimed with my own beliefs and values.”
The zero-emission revolution is underway at Tevva and customers are ready for the ride
Tevva was founded in 2013 to address the challenge of range anxiety in large commercial electric vehicles and create technology solutions to decarbonise trucks. Now, Tevva is pioneering zero-emission mobility solutions, developing a range of battery-electric and hydrogen-electric medium-duty trucks that can improve air quality, lower total cost of ownership, eliminate range anxiety and improve driver and fleet operator experience.
Cottrell explains: “Tevva has had trucks on UK roads since 2016, including 15 range-extended electric trucks operated by UPS in Southampton and Birmingham since 2019,” says Cottrell. “These vehicles have covered more than 420,000km in full-service, creating a rich data lake that has been used to inform the engineering process for the latest Tevva electric truck.”
Tevva’s 7.5-tonne battery-electric truck has passed all the necessary tests to obtain European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EC WVTA), meaning Tevva is able to produce and sell in volume across Europe.
“This is the key regulatory step when it comes to developing all vehicles, including electric trucks and allows Tevva to mass produce its electric truck.”
Cost-effective and operationally flexible EV trucks
Cottrell has seen the huge appetite among fleet operators for electric trucks, as the opportunity to reduce emissions makes good business sense.
“Our customers’ desire for fleet electrification has been really positive,” he says. “Obviously there needs to be trust in the technology and clarity on total cost of ownership (TCO).”
Tevva is working with its customers to address both of these points and feels confident that its electric trucks will save them money over the lifetime of the vehicle and improve their fleet and driver performance.
“We’re scaling up customer sales of our 7.5-tonne battery-electric truck,” he adds “At some point, the 7.5-tonne battery-electric truck will be followed by a hydrogen-electric truck sibling.”
The 7.5-tonne hydrogen-electric truck, for example, benefits from a hydrogen range-extender that enhances range from 180 km to over 400 km.
“Since much of the medium-duty truck segment requires longer range capabilities, our customers are excited about the prospect of our hydrogen truck and hydrogen as a back-up fuel to lithium-ion batteries. We are also looking at developing a 19-tonne hydrogen-electric truck,” says Cottrell.
The big question is, what are Tevva trucks like to drive?
“First and foremost, it’s easy for drivers to transition from a diesel truck to our 7.5-tonne battery-electric truck,” Cottrell details. “It’s a familiar environment, with lots of controls and buttons in the same places. Our trucks don’t look space age and they’re ready to do the job.”
This means that any contract drivers working with Tevva’s customers can sit straight into their truck and feel comfortable driving the vehicle very quickly.
He continues: “In fact, in our experience, drivers are very reluctant to go back to a diesel truck once they’ve experienced electric driving — it’s a similar story to passenger vehicles.”
Over the rest of the year, Tevva will continue scaling up production and sales of the 7.5-tonne battery-electric truck — across the UK first, then Europe.
“We already have trucks with fleet customers and the feedback has been excellent,” he concludes. “Our focus now is to secure further funding that will allow us to deliver on our business and product plans at the pace we desire and the industry needs.”
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