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Einride will manage the Tesla Semis through its Saga AI fleet management platform that’s designed to give customers all the benefits of using electric trucks to carry freight without the financial and logistical burdens of owning them.

The company’s CEO Roozbeh Charli said this “deployment is yet another proof point that we can execute at the scale our customers demand.”

Scale is what this deal promises, if Tesla can deliver. The carmaker first revealed a concept of the Semi in 2017, and after numerous delays due to the Covid pandemic and global supply chain shortages, delivered the first batch to customers, including PepsiCo, five years later.

And it wasn’t until April 2026 that the first Semi rolled off the high-volume production line at Tesla’s factory in Nevada. Despite that recent milestone, the company has pulled back on promises to reach “volume production” in 2026. Tesla said in its second-quarter shareholder letter and earnings call that it is trying to increase battery production, specifically around the company’s 4680 cell, in order to start building the Tesla Semi (and the Cybercab) at scale. 

Einride, which went public in June, operates a fleet of about 200 of its own heavy-duty electric trucks for companies such as Heineken and PepsiCo. It has also developed autonomous pod-like trucks, which are noticeable for their cab-less design. The Saga AI platform pulls it all together, determining how those vehicles are used, routed, and charged.

The deal with Tesla is outsized in its potential for Einride. It will triple the size of Einride’s fleet while sweetening the company’s sales pitch for its Saga AI software. Einride said the Tesla Semis will be available to customers across North America, and would help extend its electric freight network to key corridors in California, Georgia, New Jersey and Texas. Einride is using a third party to finance the purchase.

Einride also expects the purchase to help convert about $800 million in “potential long-term annual recurring revenue under joint business plans with shippers” into actual revenue.

Founded a decade ago, Einride has spent years developing the various components of its business, from its software and electric trucks to the self-driving system in its cabless trucks. The company is now pushing to scale its business, an effort that has accelerated in 2026.

Einride in April struck a deal with Amazon to add 75 of its electric heavy duty trucks to the e-commerce giant’s Relay freight network, and provide charging infrastructure across five locations in the United States. The Swedish company also acquired EV charging company Flipturn in a bid to offer customers a full package of services, including electric trucks and the charging software needed to run them more efficiently and reliably.

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Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.

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