Bharat Forge, along with its wholly-owned subsidiary Bharat Forge International, has acquired a 35.26% stake in Tevva Motors (Jersey), an electric vehicle company, for £10 million, the company said in an exchange notification on Tuesday.
Bharat Forge has acquired a 34.53% stake in Tevva whereas its subsidiary, Bharat Forge International, has acquired 0.73% stake in the UK-based company.
Tevva, which was founded by Asher Bennett, is a four-year-old company that produces electric range extended vehicles (EREVs) in the 7.5 -14 tonne weight category. These vehicles actively and autonomously manage the use of the range extender by utilising the predictive range extender management system (PREMS), according to the company’s website.
Tevva states that the PREMS algorithm predicts the vehicle’s daily energy consumption, based on GPS route data and weight carried to optimise the use of the range extender — without driver input required — to maximise the best use of the battery.
By virtue of this investment, Bharat Forge has also acquired a license for commercialisation of the Tevva technology within India and for strengthening its research and development activities in the e-mobility space, the company stated in a release.
Bharat Forge has been working on its R&D and technology strategy in the electric vehicles space over the last few years.
This is its third major initiative in the electric vehicle space and comes shortly after the start of the ‘Engineering and Development Centre’ at MIRA, UK and the investment in Tork Motorcycles, India, which is an electric drivetrain company, mainly focused on electric two-wheelers and/or premium electric motorcycles.