Asher and his equally enthusiastic team are forever breaking new ground and pushing the boundaries of their achievements. This month they will unveil a completely new and radical technology to power the range extender which will allow it to be completely emission free.
This is a major advantage in the global fight against diesel emissions and pollution as Athens, Madrid, Mexico City and Paris plan to ban diesel by 2025.
He explains: “At the moment you have electric cars and electric buses, but there is no production of electric trucks. That is because cars drive at most 1.5 hours a day on average and buses run on repetitive pre-planned routes so it is easy to plan the size of the battery in advance.”
"Trucks, on the other hand, are workhorses. They work 8-12 hours a day, and so pure electric never caught on with trucks, for fear that the battery would run out."
Tevva’s solution was tried out in a 15-month pilot project with UPS, which used it in a repowered truck on a daily basis in its London fleet. “They loved it - and the company reported fuel savings up to 95 per cent, says Asher who is now overseeing the operation as his Tevva team gears to start delivering the first order of 15 trucks for UPS.
The trucks Tevva repowers as well as those the company is planning to build from scratch in the not too distant future are fully digital. “Every piece of information on our trucks is in the cloud,” Asher explains. The software and algorithms developed by the company automatically calculate the most efficient use of the battery and instruct the range extender when to kick in, without any input from the driver.
This complete digitalization will help trucks take part in the autonomous vehicle revolution as well, Asher says. “In the future, trucks can also be autonomous. But while many others are focusing on the autonomous driving part of the technology, we are focusing on autonomous energy management.”
Asher established Tevva four years ago and decided to base himself in the south of England because of the high-level of automotive skills available and the need to drive his trucks on test tracks before they are unleashed on busy public roads.
The company has already struck a partnership in China with the nation’s second-largest manufacturer of diesel trucks and is in talks with potential partners in Israel, the US and Europe, Asher beams.
"We are in discussion with more than 30 truck fleet operators. DHL and Costa Coffee both start trials at the beginning of next year and further orders are on their way imminently.”
"Delivery trucks are a £75billion market and customer demand for cost effective, zero emission trucks is growing by the day.
“The market is huge,” he says. “We believe every truck should be electric.
"Our priority is to make sure our electric trucks always get the job done. Then the industry won’t be afraid of actually using them.”
And Asher won't rest until his revolutionary vision is a reality.
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