As the Tesla Semi goes into production, the company appears to have a healthy order book. Very healthy—just as we were digesting the news of large Semi orders from WattEV and Einride, we read that “a coalition of the world’s largest cargo-owning shippers” has placed an order for 2,500—the largest electric truck order to date in the US, and one that would nearly double the number of electric Class 8 trucks on US roads.
A new coalition
Who’s behind this coalition? The Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification (ZET SCALE) is a program jointly operated by two nonprofits: Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre. “By aggregating freight demand at a scale no single company could reach on its own, ZET SCALE is building a market for electric trucks that did not exist before,” says the alliance, adding that it has ambitions to order 10,000 trucks or even more.
ZET SCALE tells us that founding shippers include Microsoft and PepsiCo (which has been piloting Tesla Semis for some time). FreightWaves reports that the coalition includes at least 15 shippers, and adds IKEA, Brambles and Red Bull to the list.
“You can have good technology and still not have a market,” said Catalyst Mobility’s President and CEO, Michael Berube. “What is different about ZET SCALE is that the demand was organized so manufacturers could price at scale. That is how costs move, and that is how clean trucks leave the pilot phase.”
Rolling over the roadblocks
The concept is intriguing. By banding together, shippers could leapfrog two of the obstacles that are keeping them in the slow lane of electrification.
One roadblock is that going electric is far more complex than simply buying some trucks (as some early movers learned to their cost). Route planning, maintenance and above all, optimal charging infrastructure and utility interconnection—all this requires specialized expertise, and that’s why many fleets and shippers are working with trucking-as-a-service outfits such as WattEV, and “nibbling at electrification at their own pace,” as electric truck sage Rustam Kocher recently put it. (Read an in-depth interview with Rustam in the upcoming print issue of Charged.
The other big barrier is price. Electric trucks still carry much higher up-front costs than legacy diesels, and oddly enough, the median price of a US battery-electric Class 8 tractor rose 27% between model years 2020 and 2025, to $411,200, according to a 2025 report from the International Council on Clean Transportation. The median diesel equivalent in that dataset was $172,500.
Furthermore, pricing for electric trucks has been rather opaque. In California, a new law aims to rectify this situation. SB 1213, which Governor Newsom signed into law in September, requires manufacturers to disclose vehicle price information as a condition of receiving state subsidies.
As Rustam told me, large fleets can negotiate major discounts, while smaller buyers have to take the price they’re offered, or leave it. This is precisely the problem that ZET SCALE was created to address.
“This aggregated shipper demand has reduced electric truck prices through large-scale volume orders,” ZET SCALE tells us. “In the Alliance’s RFP, enhanced volumes allowed every truckmaker in the running to provide competitive pricing and improve the business case. After evaluating price, range, charging capability, and production capacity, the Alliance selected Tesla as its primary OEM for the initial 2,500 trucks. The Alliance also includes Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo as secondary OEMs that carriers can utilize as additional options.”
ZET Financial, a strategic partner to the Alliance, is issuing the purchase order for the initial 2,500 trucks, and will deploy the trucks through a leasing program. The company says its ZET Lease eliminates the residual-value risk to the fleet operator. “ZET Financial brings over 25 years of Class 8 truck leasing, works directly with corporate fleets by providing an analysis on the true cost of running a truck built around each fleet’s actual data, duty cycle, and operational metrics, as well as advisory services for infrastructure and charging solutions,” the company says.
“When analyzing the true cost of operating an electric truck, you cannot simply look at individual components on their own,” said Peter Flynn, CEO and founder of ZET Financial. “Our thorough cost assessment accounts for every major cost driver that affects the truck, including financing, electricity versus diesel fuel, and maintenance.”
Can Tesla deliver so many trucks in a timely manner? The company’s newly-inaugurated Semi factory in Sparks, Nevada is designed to build 50,000 trucks a year.
“ZET SCALE’s goals are exciting because they take the operational cost advantage and predictability that electricity provides, and amplifies it at scale,” said Dan Priestley, Director for the Tesla Semi Program.
More details, please
This purchasing model has a lot to recommend it, and if it works out, it could serve as a blueprint for EV buyers in other segments to move beyond pilot scale.
However, some are skeptical. Electric trucking consultant Jason Roycht, writing on LinkedIn, pointed out that there’s a lot we don’t know about ZET SCALE. The alliance says it plans to build 10 freight hubs in strategic high-utilization metro areas, but has not identified a charging partner, nor has it identified any carriers or lanes. The relationship between ZET SCALE and ZET Financial is unclear, as is the ultimate source of funding.
As Roycht concedes, ZET SCALE has the right idea about aggregating demand to lower prices, and there are some heavy players behind it. However, he thinks the plan seems “incomplete, almost rushed.” Hopefully the missing pieces of the picture will be revealed soon.
It’s a great idea, and we sincerely hope it succeeds. We’ll put some Champagne in the fridge, but we’ll wait to open it until we see some of those 2,500 Semis hit the road.
Sources: Smart Freight Centre, FreightWaves, Idle Giants
