An electric lorry company run by the “Elon Musk of Essex” has been forced to fight off legal action over late payments as it lays off staff and seeks to raise new funding.
Essex-based Tevva Motors, which has sold trucks to customers including Royal Mail, was recently served with a winding up petition by an aluminium supplier over repeated missed payments.
A winding up petition, a legal bid to put a company into administration, is typically seen as a last resort when a supplier has exhausted other options to secure payment.
It comes as Tevva, which has raised more than £100m from investors including the British taxpayer, lays off a large proportion of its staff.
The company said it was looking for new investment and making reductions in areas that do not affect its manufacturing operations.
Tevva was founded in 2012 by Asher Bennett, the brother of the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali. Mr Bennett has been dubbed the “Elon Musk of Essex” because of his development of electric vehicles in the southern county.
The company has started production of a 140-mile range truck and has planned a further model partly powered by hydrogen fuel.
It has signed sales agreements with Royal Mail and Travis Perkins.
The winding up petition was issued by Hadleigh Castings, an Ipswich aluminium foundry, earlier this month. It sought £84,011.76 for five unpaid invoices as well as interest and compensation.
Filings said: “Despite numerous requests by the Petitioner, the company has failed to settle the above invoices or provide any reason why the invoices have not been paid. As such, the Petitioner believes that the company is insolvent and unable to pay its debts as they fall due.”
The petition was withdrawn last week and Tevva said it had paid what was owed. Hadleigh Castings did not respond to a request for comment.
Tevva is yet to file accounts for 2021 at Companies House, which were due at the end of last year.
A spokesman said: “Tevva is taking action to optimise performance, enable sustainable growth and safeguard our business long-term viability and success.
“The external environment remains challenging for our industry, and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success.”
The spokesman said it was making reductions “in areas that don’t affect the company’s ability to focus on getting trucks built and out to eagerly awaiting customers”.
The company said it is in the process of filing accounts, adding that Tevva was in “ongoing discussion with financiers which will conclude soon”.
Mr Bennett recently said he had been fielding repeated calls from US officials seeking to lure the company to America with vast subsidies.
The taxpayer is a shareholder in Tevva through the Future Fund, which invested in start-ups during the pandemic.
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Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-essex-chased-suppliers-070000004.html