UAE: Einride to set up freight grid with autonomous trucks
The Swedish electric transport specialist Einride wants to bring more than 2,000 electric trucks (some of them autonomous) and charging infrastructure to the United Arab Emirates. The goal is to set up a 550-kilometre “freight mobility grid”.
Einride has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MOEI) to set up the above-mentioned freight corridor over a period of five years. The so-called Falcon Rise grid will go through Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, and Einride will deploy 2,000 electric and 200 autonomous trucks.
Moreover, the Swedish company will also set up eight charging stations with more than 500 charging points.
“This collaboration gets to the core of what Einride provides – the transformation to effective and sustainable shipping that is fully electric,” said Robert Falck, CEO and Founder. “By partnering on this deal, we’ll be able to showcase how entire regions are able to make the switch in an intelligent and cost-effective way.”
According to the press release, the grid will use Einride’s Saga platform and “simplifies the management of road freight, removes industry inefficiencies, provides uninterrupted operations and significantly reduces emissions within the region”.
It is Einride’s first deal in the region. Robert Ziegler, General Manager, EMEA of Einride, believes that it will not be the last: “We look forward to collaborating with the UAE Government to build a more sustainable and resilient transportation system, with this partnership enabling this change to be effectively deployed at scale. Einride’s offering will unlock new opportunities within the region by introducing a new way of shipping that is electric, autonomous, and digital.”
Einride is a Swedish company striving to use driverless commercial vehicles. It already developed a corresponding concept vehicle called T-Pod. One of the company’s core products is the Saga software platform, which acts as an intelligent operating system for electric (and, in the future, autonomous) vehicle fleets, and charging and connectivity networks. That will enable companies to move goods more environmentally friendly and cost-effectively.
In Europe, Einride relies on different manufacturers for its electric truck – the company has ordered about 120 Mercedes eActros, 110 e-trucks from Scania and 200 vehicles from BYD. And just recently, the company announced that it also intends to order 50 electric trucks from the Dutch manufacturer DAF Trucks. Already-known customers include Oatly, Lidl Sweden and Maersk, Electrolux, brewery AB InBev, PepsiCo, and the German supermarket Rewe.
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