By Nick Carey
LONDON (Reuters) - British electric truck startup Tevva said on Tuesday it had raised $57 million in its latest funding round to ramp up production at its new London plant and deliver its first vehicles to customers by the end of 2022.
Tevva has now raised more than $90 million.
The British truck maker will have two zero-emission 7.5 tonne (7,500 kg) models available for customers - a battery electric model with a range of 160 miles (257 km), and an electric truck with a small reserve hydrogen fuel cell to boost its range to 310 miles if needed.
Tevva Chief Executive Asher Bennett told Reuters the backup hydrogen fuel cell would provide customers with greater flexibility in the event any of their trucks need to travel further.
As hydrogen fuelling infrastructure is still in its infancy, Tevva can provide the fuel as a service to customers.
Bennett told Reuters the company expected most customers would opt for the reserve hydrogen fuel cell because they were wary of the limited range of a pure electric model.
"We understand how the truck world operates and the huge risk of that range limit is too difficult for a lot of companies to overcome," he said.
Facing looming fossil-fuel vehicle bans, truck fleets are looking for viable zero-emission options to deliver goods to businesses and consumers.
UPS, the world's largest package delivery company, is currently using 15 test model trucks from Tevva.
Tevva intends to produce several hundred trucks by the end of 2022 and targets production of 3,000 trucks annually by 2023.
Bennett said the company planned a series of small factories to make trucks close to customers. Once Tevva's London plant is operating at scale, he said the company would look at further sites in North America and the European Union.