New OHM 35 electric chassis cab claims two-tonne payload and 150-mile range

A fully electric chassis cab from new market entrant OHM will go on sale in the UK from June, imported and sold via distributor Fapi Motors.

The 3.5-tonne OHM 35 BEV, manufactured in China but with software developed by OHM in Europe, is in right-hand drive and is fully homologated for the UK, according to Hermann Mallia (pictured below), Fapi Motors managing director.

“The two-tonne payload capacity with a lightweight chassis will find its own market in the UK, from last mile to supermarkets to refrigerated transport to light refuse vans,” Mallia said.

“It is small but has the volume and capacity of load. The cabin will be too small for some but in our favour, the supermarkets have said they want to have small cabins.”

The 64kWh battery offers WLTP range of up to 150 miles with maximum peak torque of 3,150Nm. It comes with a 6.6kW AC charger or 50kW DC charger; the latter will charge from 20-90% in 40 minutes.

“Nobody needs another brand – we are an outsider, the underdog,” said Mallia. “We are happy to speak to everyone: bodybuilders, dealers, fleets, leasing companies – we will serve them all.”

He is in the initial stages of appointing a dealer network to act as sales and service agents. The OHM 35 BEV has an online service management portal – My-OHM – which enables drivers to contact OHM’s aftersales technical team and gives dealers and authorised workshops access to vehicle data to provide a quick and efficient service.

My-OHM also has tracking capability, including driver behaviour, and allows users to activate OHM’s assistance service and remotely access diagnostics information.

“We have benchmarked pricing against our closest competitor to be value for money and competitive,” Mallia said. “We have not defined our volume plans in the market; all we care about is being flexible and delivering a service. We will be bottom up, targeting the family-run businesses, not the massive corporations.”

OHM has two protype electric vans in development which will expand the Fapi model range and are, according to Mallia, “more European in design”.

He added: “Eventually, over the next three-to-five years, we will have a full range of CVs, from pick-up to 7.5-tonne GVW.”