A Fika with: Linnéa Kornehed, Co-Founder and CMO of Einride

Jessica Schultz: Einride is clearly at the forefront of a huge paradigm shift in ground transportation with autonomous trucks. Can you please share your vision with us and why you decided to go after the upgrading of trucks?

Linnéa Kornehed: When we started Einride we really wanted to solve this problem of moving goods from A to B but starting from scratch. We really envisioned this as a complete rethink of the actual system, using technology to completely rebuild the freight industry and with it, create a better future for humankind. We believe that transportation needs to be digital, electric, and autonomous. The old industry is stuck in old structures and legacy systems and isn’t able to make the change fast enough. Einride is rearchitecing everything  –  from how trucks operate, to the sourcing of energy, the planning of fleets – as well as delivering a resilient future for our customers. The underlying thread to all of this is our intelligent operating system Saga, which ensures the full ecosystem is connected. For us sustainability is not the goal, it’s our prerequisite to ensure that the best days of humankind are ahead of us. 

I always get hooked by the story itself, the problem you fix is massive and has a concrete impact on our planet. You’ve also made great progress from a commercial perspective, could you tell us more about some of your customers and how they’re utilising Einride?

When going electric and autonomous, it is not as simple as swapping out a diesel truck for an electric truck, one by one. It requires a rehaul of infrastructure and a digital platform to connect it all to ensure the fleet can be efficient and effective. We offer all of the needed elements to go electric as a turn key solution to our customers, making it easy and cost effective to make the switch. 

We’ve seen a number of prominent, global brands proactively coming to us to overhaul their supply chains. In addition to CPG brands like Beyond Meat and Oatly and other brands such as Lidl, we’re also seeing global logistic companies like Maersk partner with us. With Maersk, we’ll be servicing a fleet of 300 trucks which marks the largest global electrification of heavy road freight with 1 million shipments being electrified across the US.  

GE Appliances is another example out of the US market of a customer that we’re scaling with both electric and autonomous fleets. We were the first in the US to operate with autonomous vehicles when the Einride Pod first started operating at their Appliance Park in 2021. Now we’ll be the first to operate on US public roads with a cabless autonomous vehicle when we scale to that next step with GEA this fall. This is the first time this type of cabless, autonomous vehicles receive the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)’s approval to operate. On the electric side, we’re running 100% electric shipments seven days a week out of three locations for them, with plans for more scaling by the end of the year.  

Diesel-fueled freight trucks account for roughly 7% of the world’s total emissions and Einride is promising to reduce carbon emissions by more than 90% compared to conventional semi-trailer trucks. What other factors are you taking into account and how are you monitoring these? 

We’re building a resilient freight industry. What that means is in addition to sustainability we’re also increasing utilisation rates of fleets and improving cost efficiency. This is only made possible when a fleet is digitally planned, and our operating system Saga is able to provide insights into how a fleet can best be utilised to ensure that our customers are seeing the most impact. 

We’re beyond excited to keep witnessing Einride’s rapid growth journey. Can you tell us a little bit more about the upcoming milestones for the company?

There’s no slowing down for us. We’ve seen a large growth in the number of customers and markets in the past year and have aggressive goals for the year to come. Road freight is a $4 trillion industry as of today which means we have a lot of work ahead of us to make sure we keep making an impact – and our brilliant team has a plan to do just that.

What an inspiring story. It’s clear Einride is rapidly introducing the world to a simpler, cleaner, and smarter way of transporting goods. Thanks for your time Linnéa. We look forward to witnessing your continued growth and we’re proud to be on the journey with you!