It was only last week when Volta Trucks landed €60M in Series C extension and partnered with Siemens to electrify the fleet; now, another very popular Swedish autonomous and electric freight mobility company Einride has raised $500 million in funding. The investment includes both a Series C equity raise and a debt facility. The debt financing is the largest asset-backed facility to date for heavy-duty electric vehicles.
The $300 million in debt financing includes an initial facility rollout of $150 million starting in January 2023. It has signed with Barclays Europe (which backed Liberis), ensuring long-term funding for Einride’s current and future electric, heavy-duty vehicle fleets.
In addition, Einride has initially secured $200 million in equity contribution led by a consortium of new investors and strong continued support from existing shareholders. Investors’ list includes Swedish pension fund AMF, EQT Ventures (who invested in Flow Engineering, Kive, and Codancy), Northzone, Polar Structure, Norrsken VC and Temasek. The equity contribution includes a $90 million convertible note raised earlier this year.
“The time is now to act on not only developing but accelerating the implementation of technology that will create a cleaner, safer and more efficient way to move goods,” said Robert Falck, Founder and CEO at Einride. “We’ve created the Einride ecosystem to provide the most resilient and future-proof approach to electrifying freight today. With the support from our investors and shared belief in this mission, we’ll continue to drive disruptive change to global freight at scale.”
“This landmark debt facility represents a key milestone in the financing of heavy-duty electric vehicles,” said Gordon Beck, Director of Securitised Products Solutions at Barclays. “The innovative asset-backed structure complements Einride’s unique ecosystem offering and is a continued demonstration of how Barclays is using our financial and capital markets expertise to support clients in driving the transition to net-zero”.
Expansion plans
The Series C provides the next step in the funding of new developments and deployments across Einride’s autonomous and digital offerings and expanding Einride’s offerings to new markets and clients.
Founded by Filip Lilja, Linnéa Kornehed, and Robert Falck in 2016, Einride has already announced expansions into several European countries, including Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Norway. Also, it deployed operations for numerous new clients, including Electrolux, GE Appliances, a Haier company, and Bridgestone.
Einride’s products!
One of its offerings, the Einride Pod, is all-electric and autonomous and is equipped with specialised modular trailers for pallets, timber, perishable goods, and others. The company’s electric self-driving cargo trucks that can be controlled remotely by drivers.
In the meantime, its freight mobility grids are powered by a first-of-its-kind ecosystem, including the intelligent platform Einride Saga. electric and autonomous trucking fleets, charging infrastructure and connectivity networks. Einride unlocks a resilient, cost-effective future for freight.
Einride rivals catching up with the trend
Electric trucks are the third chapter of EVs behind electric cars and electric buses. EU lawmakers reached a deal on truck CO2 emission standards and set a zero-emission truck sales target. Truckmen have acknowledged that truck electrification might become mainstream sooner than anticipated.
While Einride is revolutionising this sector with its Pod, and the other major players in the autonomous freight game globally include Kodiak Robotics, TuSimple and Waymo, here we have listed some of the European electric trucks catching up with the trend and have secured funding rounds to disrupt logistics travel.
Volta Trucks (Sweden)
Founded by Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Walöen in 2019, Volta Trucks is a full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider. It has confirmed the details of its first ‘Volta Trucks Hub’ in the UK, serving the Volta Zero vehicles that will ply the streets of London from early 2023. It offers electric trucks with a ‘truck-as-a-service’ rental model. The Volta Zero electric truck features Europe’s first use of a truck e-Powertrain. In total, the Swedish firm has raised over €360 million.
Tevva (UK)
Tevva was established by Asher Bennett in 2012. It designs and develops mass-market extended-range electric trucks ranging from 7.5 tonnes up to 32 tonnes. Tevva’s award-winning proprietary technology integrates battery management systems, the latest electric motor technology and a patented, intelligent, remotely operated range extender.
Tevva launched its first electric hybrid truck featuring 74 kWh batteries on either side of the chassis and a 120 kW electric motor. It is touted to be the world’s first greenest truck ever. So far the company has reportedly raised around $140M in funding.
E-Trucks Europe H₂ (Netherlands)
The Dutch electric truck maker E-Trucks Europe H₂ manufactures electric drivetrains for heavy-duty automobiles. Its drive train is optimised for powering trucks up to tons and delivers all power required for propulsion, auxiliaries, and eventually mounted installations. Vehicles equipped with its drivetrain are suitable for city applications as it does not produce noise or emissions.
At the same time, Einride’s transportation solutions are also live and running in the United States. So we thought to list some direct rivals from the continent competition against the Swedish autonomous electric pods.
Tesla’s Semi
Shifting its focus on electric cars, Elon Musk’s brainchild Tesla launched Semi, an electric truck. The semi is available in two configurations – the 300-mile range version, and the 500-mile version. The Semi will carry freight between the company’s factories in Nevada and Fremont and back again so that engineers can continually refine the product.
Amazon-backed Rivian Trucks
Rivian Trucks backed by Amazon, has the potential to revolutionise the auto industry. Started in 2009 as Mainstream Motors and became Rivian by Robert R.J. Scaringe in 2019; the company is building an electric SUV and pickup truck on a skateboard platform, which supports future vehicles or can be adopted by other companies.
In partnership with Amazon, it is developing an electric delivery van. Rivian started deliveries of its R1T pickup truck in late 2021. The company plans to build an exclusive charging network in the US and Canada by the end of 2023. Rivian has received $11.5 billion funding so far as it prepares to go public.