Maersk has been engaged in a year-long court battle with Swedish autonomous truck supplier Einride over the collapse of a partnership that was supposed to supply the ocean carrier with hundreds of its electric trucks.
Einride filed a lawsuit against Maersk in November 2024 in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County regarding the termination of the container shipping giant’s agreement.
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The plaintiff said in a court filing that Maersk and its California-based affiliates walked away from the deal “after being unable to meet their own sales targets for electric capacity.”
As for the defendant, Maersk told the Wall Street Journal that it had “no choice” but to end the partnership last November. A company spokesperson accused Einride of failing to deliver additional electric vehicles (EVs) that the carrier had already ordered, all while failing to pay their vendors at the time.
According to the WSJ report, an Einride spokesman said the company disagreed with Maersk’s characterization of the circumstances, which prompted the legal action.
The news was first reported by Danish business newspaper Børsen last week.
In January, the California court granted Einride’s request to file parts of the complaint under seal, citing sensitive business information and pricing contained in the contract.
“[Einride’s] customers can use this information to demand greater concessions from the Plaintiffs regardless of the customers’ individual circumstances,” Judge Robert Broadbelt III said in the order. “Their competitors can use this information to gain an unfair advantage over the Plaintiffs in their own negotiations with customers, e.g. by offering the same vehicle specifications at a lower price or by using their business plans in the projected strategies or in the earnings of their customers.”
Judge Broadbelt also indicated that competing electric truck firms may disclose some of Einride’s confidential financial information.
Under the agreement, first announced in March 2022, Maersk was expected to add 300 electric trucks to its North American network. At the time, the deal was described as “the largest deployment of heavy-duty electric trucks to date.” The deal included Class 8 trucks manufactured by Chinese EV manufacturer BYD.
They were to be used by the ocean carrier’s warehousing, distribution and transport subsidiary Performance Team, and would be the first large-scale use of Einride’s Saga digital road freight operating system. Under the partnership, the subsidiary charges solutions built by Voltera near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.