West Horsley Dairy takes delivery of electric delivery truck

Dairy and chilled food distributor, West Horsley Dairy (WHD), will be the first UK foodservice business to run an electric truck fitted with Tevva Motors's commercial vehicle technology.

The company delivers a full range of dairy products and other foods to London and the home counties to a range of private and corporate companies, and the EV truck will focus on deliveries to Central London.

The company will take delivery of a new 11-tonne truck, fitted with an electric eutectic refrigeration system in the body. Tevva’s electrification technologies include bespoke battery packs and management system, electric motor and optional range extender.

Already using a different manufacturer’s hybrid delivery trucks, WHD believes Tevva’s solution is a more impactful way forwards and will look to bolster its 42-strong fleet of vehicles with more of Tevva’s range extended electric vehicles in future as it strives for greater sustainability.

WHD Managing Director, Philip Colton, said: “Although not driven by customer requests, there has been a constant demand to know what extra dimension to our own sustainability WHD could add to that of our customers, and a zero-emission vehicle fits that perfectly.

“We are looking to reduce our carbon footprint but also drive down the cost per mile of running our vehicles. The USP of the Tevva solution is its delivery range over other entrants to the EV market, even from mainline manufacturers. That has been a key factor for us because our main depot is outside London in Surrey.”

David Thackray, Tevva Sales & Marketing Director, said: “West Horsley Dairy was one of our earliest adopters at Tevva so I am personally delighted to see the team there become the first foodservice company in the UK to take delivery of their eTruck.

“Philip and his team at WHD recognised early on that the only way to meet increasingly stringent existing and future emissions regulations and lower the total cost of ownership of fleet vehicles at the same time was to go all electric.”