FedEx is buying 2,000 electric trucks for $300M, and investing in the company building them

FedEx has ordered 2,000 electric delivery trucks worth $300M from Harbinger, a Californian startup it also backed with a Series C investment last year. Europe’s equivalents, Volta Trucks and Tevva, both went under, and a European logistics depot needs ten to twenty times its current power capacity to run an electric fleet.

FedEx has ordered 2,000 electric delivery trucks from Harbinger, a Californian startup, for the United States and Canada. The order is worth $300M and the vehicles arrive before the end of 2027. Europe’s equivalent companies are no longer in business.

Harbinger estimates each truck saves about $20,000 a year against diesel, which is $40M across the fleet and roughly $800M over a 20-year service life, as InsideEVs reported. Those are the manufacturer’s projections rather than measured results.

It also estimates more than 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide avoided over the vehicles’ lives. Paul Melander, FedEx’s senior vice president of safety and transportation, said electrifying at this scale needs vehicles that can do the work the operation demands.

FedEx is not only the customer. It led Harbinger’s $160M Series C late last year and placed an initial order for 53 trucks at the same time.

Europe tried to build these companies and lost them. Volta Trucks raised roughly EUR 600M and filed for bankruptcy in 2023 with about 5,000 pre-orders, after its battery supplier went under.

Tevva, which built 7.5-tonne electric trucks at Tilbury and supplied Royal Mail, went into insolvency in May 2024. Arrival went into administration the same year.

The harder European problem is not the vehicle. A logistics depot here needs ten to twenty times its current power capacity to run a fully electric fleet, and grid connections take years rather than months.

That is why an order this size is easier to place in America than here. The trucks are the part that can simply be bought.

American hardware is arriving anyway. Tesla’s Semi entered production in September, nine years after it was shown, and is due in Europe in 2027.

Harbinger’s trucks are Class 5 and 6, with 440 hp and 1,140 lb-ft from a drive unit holding motor, transmission and differential in one housing.

Sweden’s Einride has ordered 500 Semis, for American states rather than European roads.

Harbinger prices start at $103,000 before incentives. Rivian’s electric van is cheaper at $79,900 but smaller, rated to 9,500 lb against Harbinger’s 16,000 to 26,000.

FedEx wants its whole pickup and delivery fleet electric by 2040. The vehicles exist and can be ordered. In Europe the depot is the question.