CASE STUDIES
Bringing the UK’S First 7.5T EV Truck into Volume Production
Supporting Tevva to optimise the production of their electric truck, enabling them to accelerate it to market and scale further.
WHO WAS THE CUSTOMER?
Tevva is a technology company and truck manufacturer. They are best known for creating Britain’s first 7.5t-electric truck. Today, they specialise in producing zero-tailpipe emission Electric Vehicles and long-range Hydrogen Electric vehicles from their factory in Tilbury, UK.
WHAT WAS THE BRIEF?
Since 2021, HSSMI has been closely involved with Tevva trucks, with particular support given to the definition and execution of their manufacturing strategy. As the business has grown and production has launched, HSSMI has continued to work with Tevva, moving from strategy based work, to delivering manufacturing engineering activities. Under this contract, HSSMI were employed to help optimize the manufacturing operations as Tevva ramp up production and begin to deliver customer orders.
WHY WERE HSSMI BROUGHT IN?
HSSMI have an experienced team of manufacturing engineers who have delivered industrial engineering projects for numerous OEMs and across various powertrain and vehicle programs. For companies at the beginning of production, we help to ensure production operations are well defined and documented, repeatable, can be delivered within the targeted cycle times, all potential issues have been identified and management / mitigation strategies put in place, and have been embedded with the right quality management systems. HSSMI has an excellent working relationship with Tevva and were therefore brought in to bolster the team in ensuring manufacturing runs smoothly.
WHAT DID HSSMI DO TO DELIVER THE RESULTS?
Our support over the last 12 months was based across 5 key areas highlighted below:
Slow build: We supported the Tevva Manufacturing Engineering team on validating the process and parts to build their flagship 7.5t Battery electric truck. With the skills and capabilities we have in house we were able to support the validation process on site whilst
a physical truck was being built according to the Bill of sequence. This included highlighting improvements that could be made during the entire process.
In-line/end of line testing strategies: With our in house test specialists we were able to support
Tevva on a variety of testing strategies which would ultimately support them in receiving certification to produce and sell vehicles. This ranged from end of line testing strategies for whole vehicle and also battery in-line and end of line testing.
Bill of Materials (BoM) Alignment: With any programme BoM alignment between design and manufacturing is a vital input to the success of a project. HSSMI were able to complete multiple BoM alignment activities in conjunction with design CAD to validate that all parts are accounted for. This activity was also repeated and validated during the slow build.
Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA) Generation: PFMEA’s guide the Manufacturing engineering team on what risks require controls to allow for successful, safe and quality production. Our team were able to create and develop PFMEA’s for all components and sub-assemblies associated to the build of the truck.
Build Book Generation: An up to date and complete build book is an industry standard form of allowing production operators and manufacturing engineers to support the build process of the vehicle. It also serves as a guide for any new production staff to have the ability
to understand the product and train in the production of said vehicles. HSSMI collated
all product CAD, process steps and critical characteristics to create a build book , which can now be updated to suit any design changes for the 7.5t truck.
WHAT WERE THE OUTPUTS?
Tangible outputs were delivered for each of the described tasks above. This has enabled the Tevva Manufacturing team to establish robust documentation which 1) led to the achievement of certification status and 2) supported their target for production in late 2022, early 2023. With the support from the HSSMI team, we were able to augment Tevva’s manufacturing team with specific expertise. This helped to free up the senior management team to focus on hitting important strategic milestones at the same time.
WHAT IMPACT DID THIS MAKE?
The impact from this project has provided Tevva with a sound basis for production, in terms of manufacturing engineering. Our support has allowed the Tevva team to complete gateway milestones and allowed the wider Tevva team to continually progress to their target of production. With our sound knowledge and experience with Manufacturing we supported Tevva reach the target of start of production of their 7.5t battery electric Truck.
TEVVA STARTED MASS PRODUCING AND SELLING ITS 7.5T BATTERY-ELECTRIC TRUCK IN JANUARY 2023 FOLLOWING EUROPEAN COMMUNITY WHOLE VEHICLE TYPE APPROVAL (ECWVTA). BELOW ARE THE KEY SPECIFICATIONS OF THE TRUCK:
-
- Maximum power: 192 kW
- Maximum range: 227 Km
- Battery capacity: 105 kWh
- Overall length: 8730 mm
- Battery pack size: 105 kWh
- No. of motors: Single motor
- Load capacity: 7.5 Tonne
(7.5T electric – getting the job done. Tevva)
CONTACT US
Contact us today for a short initial conversation on how HSSMI can help your organisation achieve its strategic goals.
