GOING GLOBAL
ANOTHER NEW ELECTRIC TRUCK BRAND GOES INTO PRODUCTION New UK truck factories are as rare as hen teeth, but PowerTorque’s European Correspondent, Will Shiers, was pleased to visit one in south east England earlier this year as another new electric truck brand goes into production.
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uring my lifetime I’ve witnessed countless UK truck factory closures: Bedford, ERF, Foden and Seddon Atkinson to name just a few, but until now, I don’t think I’ve ever written about one that’s opening! The factory in question is in Tilbury, Essex, about 20 miles to the east of London, and belongs to Tevva. This may well be the first time you’ve heard of this zero tailpipe emissions truck manufacturer, but the company
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has been around for almost a decade, and marketing director David Thackray is keen to point out to me that it’s not a start-up. “Between 2013 and 2020 we were a start-up, but now we’re a scale-up company,” says David, explaining that this phase is capital intensive, so needs to be as short as possible. “It’s ultimately pre profit, and if you don’t punch through this phase in rapid time, you’ll make it more capital intensive than it needs to be. You need to light the rocket and
get it into orbit quickly.” This is exactly what Tevva is doing, with the help of £53m ($95m) of funding it has secured from investors over the last 12 months. At the heart of its rocket launch plans is the new 11,150 m2 assembly plant, which I visited in February. At the time contractors were busy fitting the 12 assembly stations, readying it for full production in the summer. When it’s up and running, it will be capable of building up to 3,000 trucks per annum.
