Medium-duty EV truck and hybrid vehicle maker Harbinger recently announced it has raised a $160 million Series C funding round. With this Series C, Harbinger has raised $358 million to date. In addition to the investment, FedEx placed an initial order for 53 Harbinger EVs.
By the end of the calendar year, Harbinger expects to deliver the chassis, which will be ready for upfit. The vehicles will be a mix of Class 5 and Class 6 models. These trucks are larger-capacity pickup and delivery vehicles, part of a larger network transformation effort by FedEx.
Harbinger notes its proprietary electric platform features acquisition costs competitive with traditional combustion engines. It offers modular battery configurations ranging from 140 to over 200 miles, and driver-centric design improvements. The vehicles include advanced safety features uncommon in medium-duty trucks, such as backup cameras with dynamic trajectory and acoustic vehicle alerting systems.
“Any vehicle that holds up to our rigorous on-road testing and offers state-of-the-art safety features with lower total cost of ownership is win-win for drivers and for our business,” said Paul Melander, senior vice president of safety and transportation, FedEx, in the release. “As we work toward a goal to electrify the entire FedEx pickup and delivery fleet by 2040, this trifecta of performance, price, and operational resilience is what we need to be able to continue to scale,” added Melander.
The investment round featured significant participation from Ridgeline, a longtime Harbinger investor backed by FedEx, along with Tiger Global; Leitmotif, a U.S. venture capital firm backed by Volkswagen; and several other venture capital firms including Maniv Mobility, Schematic Ventures, Overture Climate, Ironspring Ventures, ArcTern Ventures, Litquidity Ventures, and The Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, managed by Greycroft.
The focus on mass adoption and large initial order for Harbinger’s platform is notable. “Over the last two decades, medium-duty truck fleets have generally deployed small volumes of demonstration electric trucks. The industry is now ready to move to mass adoption, with Harbinger leading that scale up,” said Dipender Saluja, managing partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund, in the release.
Harbinger’s chassis and momentum go beyond the medium-duty space. Earlier in September, THOR Industries’ operating company Entegra Coach unveiled the Embark, the world’s first range-extended electric Class A motorhome built on Harbinger’s platform. The RV integrates Harbinger’s advanced EV chassis with a low-emissions gasoline range extender, offering up to 450 miles of range.
