Electric trucks are coming of age
Looking at what Tevva Motors is up to in the UK, electric trucks look set to be a reality sooner than later.
Electric truck drivetrains are attracting good deal of attention. They could soon become a reality on the roads of Europe. An electric truck startup company Tevva Motors (formerly Teva Motors) is working to commercialise range-extended electric trucks in the UK market for some time now. Revealing its latest offering recently via a video posted online, the company, at the last year’s CV show unveiled a batterypowered 7.5-tonne-GVW truck.
It was few months ago that the company announced the level up to which its come to in terms of being ready for application. The company mentioned that its powertrain can be electric powertrain has retrofitted to any 7.5-tonne truck. At the heart of the driveline is a pair of lithium-ion batteries, which fuel a single electric motor driving through a reduction gearbox to the truck’s standard rear axle. Battery power alone, mainscharged overnight, is claimed to present a range of about 80
miles. This could be enhanced by a 1.6-litre Ford diesel engine working as a range extender. Coming in at around 7.5-tonnes, the range-extended electric truck is manufactured by the Chinese company JAC, and claims to have an all-electric range of 130 km (over 80 miles). A much larger absolute-range is possible once the diesel range extender is factored in, and can be recharged in roughly three hours using a three-phase highpower outlet. Getting support from UPS, Tevva Motors is claimed to be particularly proud of its patented ‘Predictive Range Extender Management System’. One of the claimed benefits of the system is the ability to deliver a battery life of up to 10 years. The driveline comes from Sheffield-based Magtec; the lithium-ion battery pack comes from Essex-based Goodwolfe Energy.
While two of Tevva’s prototype trucks are claimed to have clocked around 30,000 miles over the past six months in road tests, and are based on the N-series chassis-cabs from JAC of China, it is UPS, which is currently performing a pilot study with one of the rangeextended (REx) electric truck prototypes, which will lead to the company utilising the technology on a broader scale. A third Tevva test vehicle, with a retrofitted driveline, is based on a Mercedes-Benz Vario. According to Asher Bennett, Tevva Motors Chief Executive, all three vehicles were built to be broken. “That is how we find weaknesses and improve the design to be production-ready. The fact that all three vehicles continue to perform beyond expectation is testament to the technology. But this is only the start,” he said. Interestingly, one of the ideas behind the use a range extender is that, while carbon emissions (and pollution) will still be emitted by the truck, the timing of these emissions can be easily controlled. In other words, rather than spewing diesel pollution in urban and residential areas, the use of the range-extender can be limited to freeways, rural areas, etc.