FedEx has ordered 2,000 all-electric trucks from Harbinger, a medium-duty truck maker in Garden Grove, California, in a deal worth more than $300 million. The trucks will go into FedEx pickup and delivery operations in the US and Canada, with delivery planned by the end of 2027.
Each truck replaces a conventional vehicle one for one. The order covers a mix of models from Harbinger’s electric lineup. More than $300 million across 2,000 trucks works out to more than $150,000 a truck.
Harbinger estimates each truck cuts fuel costs by an average of $20,000 a year compared with the diesel truck it replaces. Across the order, it puts the savings at about $40 million a year. Diesel hit a record US average of $6.53 a gallon in late September, according to the EIA.
FedEx placed a first order for 53 Harbinger trucks, a mix of Class 5 and Class 6 models, last November, according to FreightWaves. It co-led Harbinger’s $160 million Series C at the same time. Paul Melander, FedEx’s senior vice president of safety and transportation, sits on Harbinger’s board.
FedEx aims for all its parcel delivery vehicle purchases to be electric by 2030, per Bloomberg. It runs nearly 9,500 electric vehicles worldwide, counting on-road and off-road equipment.
FedEx began taking electric vans from GM’s BrightDrop unit in 2021, five of an order for 500, per TechCrunch. GM ended BrightDrop production last October. It said the commercial electric delivery van market “developed much slower than expected” and that the loss of US tax credits made the business harder.
Harbinger calls the FedEx deal “one of the largest binding orders for electric medium or heavy-duty trucks in history.” A shipper group led by Microsoft and PepsiCo pooled demand last week for 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks. A leasing company, ZET Financial, buys the trucks and leases them to carriers.
Harbinger recently finished building its 1,000th vehicle, co-founder and CEO John Harris told Bloomberg. The FedEx order is twice that output. Harris called the delivery schedule “unprecedented for the industry.”
