FedEx orders $300 million of electric trucks from a startup it helped fund

The FedEx team that took delivery of Harbinger's first trucks is about to receive roughly 38 times as many ^[1]. The case for them rests on Harbinger's figures. The startup estimates each truck saves about $20,000 a year against diesel, or $40 million a year across the order and roughly $800 million over a 20-year service life, as InsideEVs reported ^[3]. TNW calls those the manufacturer's projections, not measured results ^[3]. Neither report includes fuel or maintenance figures from the trucks FedEx already has ^[5].

Harbinger also says the trucks will avoid more than 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide over their lives ^[7]. FedEx is buying them from a company it financed. It led Harbinger's $160 million Series C late last year ^[2]. The new $300 million order ^[1] is almost twice the size of that round ^[2]. TechCrunch reports it is Harbinger's largest bulk order yet ^[6].

The price list gives a second check. Harbinger's Class 5 and 6 trucks start at $103,000 before incentives ^[12]. FedEx's order averages $150,000 a truck, about $47,000 above that starting price ^[3][4]. Rivian's electric van costs less, at $79,900, but is rated to 9,500 lb against Harbinger's 16,000 to 26,000 ^[13]. Paul Melander, FedEx's senior vice president of safety and transportation, said electrifying at this scale requires vehicles that meet the operation's requirements, according to TNW ^[8].

TNW argues that the trucks are the part a European fleet can simply buy, and that the depot is the harder problem ^[17]. Its own list of European collapses includes a supply failure. Volta Trucks raised roughly EUR 600 million and had about 5,000 pre-orders when it filed for bankruptcy in 2023, after its battery supplier went under ^[9].

A fleet deciding whether to follow FedEx should start with whose savings figure the budget uses: the vendor's projection, or one measured on the fleet's own routes. Next is whether the depot already has the power or is still waiting on a grid connection. Measured savings with power in place support a large order. With measured savings and no power, the grid connection sets the timetable, so that application goes in before the truck order. When the figure is the vendor's and the power is there, I think the right step is a small batch first. It costs time, and it produces a number the buyer owns. A vendor's figure and no power mean waiting. FedEx's first, smaller order sat in that third box, placed by the lead investor in the company building the trucks ^[2].