Commercial EVs

Electric freight mobility specialist Einride has opened its first Smartcharger station in the US, launching as the largest operational charging site for heavy-duty EVs on the continent. The new station is strategically located in a busy freight corridor, providing electric truck drivers with 65 charging piles powered by Voltera.

EV startup REE Automotive is off to a newsworthy week so far, dropping three separate updates regarding its business strategies and unique technology. In addition to a new collaboration to provide technology to aerospace developer Airbus UpNext, REE closed a public offering of ordinary shares this morning, totaling close to $15 million. Lastly, the public is getting its first public look at REE’s all-electric demo vehicle at Work Truck Week 2024.

Mullen Automotive announced it has begun road testing Class 1 electric vans equipped with solid-state polymer batteries alongside footage of the initial run. The energy-dense cells fit in the same pack design but offer a significantly higher range – even higher than Mullen anticipated.

A new 38 port electric truck charging depot and maintenance hub is coming online to service Southern California’s ports and logistics centers, along with 50 new electric trucks from Volvo and Daimler.

Commercial EV manufacturer Xos, Inc. has partnered with renowned lifestyle vehicle expert Winnebago to electrify the commercial segment further. Together, the companies have developed a fully electric chassis to support Winnebago’s specialty vehicle division, which currently offers custom builds of Class C RVs and Class A EV buses for several use cases.

The iconic Mack Trucks brand has been taking the medium duty market by storm, bringing big truck features and functionality to the segment like never before. The market has responded, and Mack is selling as many as they can make — so they’re going to start making more.

Einride has announced it is helping world-renowned brewery Heineken electrify its freight operations between the Netherlands and Germany. Heineken put several electric trucks into operation last month as it looks to deploy Einride’s entire ecosystem across its fleet operations in the future.

Mercedes invited us out to drive the new eSprinter, the electric version of Mercedes’ cargo van, and if there’s one thing I want you to understand about it is: it’s a van, but it’s electric.

Seven months after kicking off production of its Class 3 electric trucks in Mississippi, EV startup Mullen Automotive has secured fruitful environmental compliance and approvals from CARB and the EPA. As a result, those CARB-compliant states and Washington DC enable tremendous savings to fleet operators who purchase electric trucks from Mullen.

Walmart-backed EV startup Canoo has announced that deliveries of its all-electric commercial van have officially begun – and the first production Canoo LDV 130 vans are already hard at work.

Ford Pro and Xcel energy will collaborate to deploy 30,000 EV charging ports for commercial customers by 2030, and the best part is that qualifying business customers can get most upfront costs of this infrastructure offset by Xcel Energy.

Freight logistics specialist Schneider is celebrating a huge milestone in the commercial EV space today, reporting its fleet of electric trucks from Daimler’s Freightliner brand has surpassed 1 million total miles driven – all without any carbon emissions. We love to see it.

UK startup Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC) has announced an interesting new partnership today as it looks to reach production of its flagship commercial van, the eCV1. Together with the help of leading Norwegian industrial company Hydro, WEVC hopes to deliver an electric van built from recycled aluminum that can last decades and potentially enable closed-loop production.

Autonomous EV freight developer Einride announced another key milestone today, deploying full-time, commercial operations with longtime partner GE Appliances. The autonomous trucks are navigating between GE’s manufacturing facility and warehouse, demonstrating a case for scaled commercialization in the electric freight industry.

One week after sharing that its EV order book had grown to over $25 million in binding purchases, many of which coming in since August, REE Automotive is touting another purchase commitment, sending its ledger over $40 million in value.

As commercial EV startup REE Automotive chases full vehicle certification and first customer deliveries before year’s end, it’s touting some promising interest from fleet operators. Today, REE is reporting a significant increase in orders since August, with an order book now totaling $25 million.

Renault Group and Volvo Group have announced the forming of a new company together to help decarbonize the logistics industry. The new joint venture will specialize in developing a lineup of all-electric vans built atop a new LCV skateboard platform.

Close to six months after announcing a massive order from GM’s BrightDrop, logistics and vehicle rental specialist Ryder is deploying its first batch of electric vans across the US. The deployment kicks off Ryder’s process in adding 4,000 BrightDrop EVs to its fleet over the next two years.

Daimler recently launched a new class 4-5 medium-duty electric truck brand, RIZON, and we got a chance to kick the tires and drive one around.

We came away impressed at how well it drives (for an 18k GVWR vehicle) and how comfortable it feels like it would be on long shifts.

Veteran EV startup Mullen Automotive is touting a production milestone today as it has officially begun assembling its Mullen THREE Class 3 electric trucks. With production now underway in Mississippi, Mullen shared its timeline for customer deliveries in addition to annual output targets.

As freight logistics specialist Schneider National continues to electrify its fleet of regional and long-haul trucks, it decided to take charging into its own hands… at least in Southern California. The company just opened a new depot about half the size of a football field, capable of charging over 30 electric trucks simultaneously.