Swedish battery-electric truck start-up Einride has sued Danish shipping and logistics giant Maersk in California's Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing the company of improperly backing out of a 2022 deal to roll out a major fleet of battery-electric heavy-duty trucks in the U.S.
The March 2022 agreement called for Einride to supply 300 battery-electric Class 8 rigs, install 150 charging stations, and integrate its digital freight-management platform into Maersk's U.S. logistics network. The initiative, at the time, was promoted as one of the largest planned deployments of electric HD freight equipment in North America.
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In its lawsuit, Einride contends that Maersk walked away after demanding major revisions to the commercial terms, including substantial price cuts. The company also alleges that Maersk failed to meet internal readiness milestones necessary for the rollout and ultimately withdrew from the multi-year program.
Maersk, as expected, rejects those claims, arguing instead that Einride missed delivery deadlines for the contracted vehicles and failed to pay key subcontractors involved with the project.
Both companies point to the other's alleged shortcomings as the cause of the partnership's collapse.
Unfortunately, the suit marks the unraveling of a once high-profile and much-welcomed collaboration central to Maersk's North American decarbonization plans, as well as Einride's push to scale its electric-freight presence in the U.S.
[Related: Einride opens 65-charger heavy-duty charging station in southern California]
Einride, founded in 2016 and had its first autonomous EV on a public road in 2019, recently made headlines with the announcement that it completed the world's first cabless electric and fully autonomous border crossing in Norway.
