Electric and autonomous trucking operator Einride began trading on Nasdaq Wednesday as ENRD at a $1.35 billion valuation, down from the $1.8 billion announced when the SPAC deal was signed in November and the $5 billion it once discussed in private talks with banks, per the Financial Times.
How it works: Rather than selling trucks or brokering loads, Einride owns the fleet and charges shippers a subscription for installed transport capacity, so the buyer carries no CapEx. It runs about 200 heavy-duty electric trucks for 30 customers across seven countries, plus a small cab-less autonomous Pod fleet with NHTSA approvals in five states and more than 3,300 driverless hours logged.
The marquee accounts: Amazon runs 75 electric trucks with drivers in the Relay middle-mile network across five US locations, targeting 3 million electric miles a year.
GE Appliances is running the first full-time daily commercial autonomous operation, shuttling freight from factory to warehouse in Selmer, Tennessee. Mars is deploying 300 electric trucks across Europe by 2030.
The debut: The stock more than doubled on day one, enough to trip a Nasdaq trading halt. Holders redeemed 16.6 million Legato trust shares before close, reducing the cash pool to well below the $333 million originally projected.
The oversubscribed $113 million PIPE (private investor round) held firm, offsetting part of the shortfall.
The financials: At $1.35 billion, the valuation is roughly 27 times the $49 million run-rate revenue Einride reported as of February. FY2025 brought a SEK 1.72 billion net loss, and its top five customers supply 43% of revenue.
CEO Roozbeh Charli told FreightWaves that "the ticket to play is being cost-competitive with the diesel solution," and quarterly filings will now show whether it is.
Across the sector: Einride joins Aurora and Kodiak as the publicly traded AV freight operators now reporting numbers every quarter. PepsiCo is running both inside one network: Einride electric trucks in Memphis and 41 driverless Gatik trucks in Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas.
