MilliOnAir Magazine September 2017 | Page 74

Now his "baby" - Tevva Motors boasts its first orders for repowering the trucks of delivery giants UPS, DHL and Switzerland's Kuehne+Nagel with its components, including the batteries and motor and its sophisticated cloud-based autonomous range extender which guarantees the vehicles can be used across the length and breadth of the country.

 

Asher, who is extremely passionate and proud of having produced “the world's greenest truck”, has already won a string of industry awards and this year alone has picked up five significant grants from a UK government impressed by the achievements of their hard-working team of highly-skilled automotive experts.

"The industry is starting to heat up - but we are most advanced," explains Asher, who is just back from a whistle-stop tour of China, India, Israel and the United States where there is increasing interest in his cutting-edge technology that is set to transform the industry on an unprecedented scale.

Asher is seeking to raise £10million to £15million to help finance its growth - meanwhile, the first of the trucks are set to roll off the production line for UPS at the beginning of next year.

 

Asher has brought to trucks the same technologies used from his time spent in the Israeli Navy. In the same way as submarines, Tevva's trucks use a large battery pack and electric motor for propulsion and have a generator to recharge the battery while the vehicle is in motion. Also, like the submarines, they have a sophisticated plan for energy use and management.

 

Asher explains: "Trucks typically work for more than ten hours every day and need to be capable, reliable and cost effective. Simple electric trucks struggle to cope with long routes and need a large margin of safety to get home which makes them expensive. They also don't work if there is a power cut at night or the driver forgets to plug them in - which happens!”

Asher's brainstorming idea was to add a small, efficient range extender that can recharge the battery on the go if required.

 

"This means there is no range limit - it can charge a flat battery - and since the battery is fully utilised, every day, the cost is low. Lower than the cost of a conventional diesel truck.

The battery, when fitted on a 7.5-tonne truck can last for about 160 kilometres from a single mains charge or 600 kilometres with the range extender."