Swedish battery-electric truck startup Einride has sued Danish logistics giant Maersk over a collapsed deployment deal that was supposed to put 300 zero-emission trucks on American roads but instead became the latest casualty of the post-subsidy EV market collapse.

The lawsuit reveals a corporate sustainability commitment unraveling in real time.

The Deal That Wasn’t

Einride filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in November 2024, claiming Maersk reneged on a highly publicized 2022 agreement to deploy 300 electric trucks and 150 charging stations across California, Illinois, and New Jersey between 2023 and 2025.

When the companies announced the partnership in March 2022, they called it “the largest operational contract for electric heavy-duty road freight deployment to date.” The deal included BYD-manufactured Class 8 trucks, Einride’s Saga digital freight management platform, and charging infrastructure built by Voltera near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Maersk Growth, the shipping giant’s venture capital arm, had invested in Einride’s $110 million Series B funding round in May 2021, making the subsequent termination particularly awkward.

Who’s Blaming Whom

According to heavily redacted court documents, Maersk terminated the contract in November 2024, citing Einride’s alleged “failure to deliver additional electric vehicles already ordered and also their failure to pay their vendors.”

Einride’s counter-claim tells a different story.

The Swedish startup argues that Maersk walked away “after not being able to live up to their own sales targets for electric capacity.” An October 16, 2024 email cited in the lawsuit shows Maersk telling Einride it couldn’t “see a way forward where we can both run a sustainable business as partners under the current construct, considering external market conditions and given the current situation.”

At an early November 2024 meeting in Copenhagen, Maersk allegedly threatened to pull out of the agreements unless Einride provided “hefty discounts,” according to the complaint.

Timing Tells The Story

The collapse happened precisely as the American EV market was imploding following the September 30, 2025 federal tax credit expiration.

Just months before terminating the Einride deal, Maersk was publicly committing to electric trucking infrastructure as part of a coalition with Microsoft and PepsiCo to electrify the Interstate 10 corridor between Los Angeles and El Paso. That September 2024 announcement positioned Maersk’s North America president as declaring:

“To electrify trucking on a meaningful scale, all stakeholders need to invest in expanding the electric grid for charging capabilities.”

Two months later, Maersk was demanding discounts to continue the Einride partnership.

The timing coincides with broader market carnage. U.S. EV sales collapsed 24% in October 2025 after the tax credit expired, validating warnings that American EV adoption remained heavily subsidy-dependent.

Startup Struggles Meet Corporate Retreat

Einride’s lawsuit comes as the company pursues a $1.8 billion SPAC merger to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in the first half of 2026. The Swedish startup recently announced it has $65 million in contracted annual recurring revenue and over $800 million in potential long-term revenue through customer business plans.

But the path hasn’t been smooth.

Einride underwent significant cost-cutting in autumn 2024, including layoffs and leadership changes. Founder and CEO Robert Falck stepped down, with CFO Roozbeh Charli taking over as CEO. The company reported losses of 930 million Swedish kronor (approximately $98 million) in 2024 on revenue of 458 million kronor ($48 million).

Meanwhile, Maersk continued pursuing electric truck orders from other manufacturers, including placing orders for 126 Volvo VNR Electric trucks separate from the Einride deal.

EVXL’s Take

This lawsuit exposes the brutal economics of electric truck deployment when government support evaporates overnight.

Think about the timing: Maersk and Einride announced their partnership in March 2022 when federal EV tax credits were unlimited, California’s Advanced Clean Trucks mandate was pushing logistics operators toward zero-emission vehicles, and corporate sustainability commitments were fashionable. We covered the original announcement when Maersk was still publicly championing electric trucking infrastructure.

Then reality intervened.

Congress passed legislation in July 2025 terminating the $7,500 federal EV tax credit effective September 30, 2025. The Trump administration began rolling back EPA emissions regulations in March 2025, including reconsidering the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles Phase 3 that trucking industry groups had challenged as an “unrealistic” electric vehicle mandate.

By June 2025, Trump signed Congressional Review Act resolutions revoking California’s Advanced Clean Trucks waiver, eliminating the regulatory stick that pushed logistics operators toward EVs.

The market reacted exactly as predicted. October 2025 EV sales cratered 24% after the tax credit expired. We’ve documented how Toyota’s hybrid strategy suddenly looks prescient while Detroit’s Big Three retreat from EV investments with massive layoffs and idled battery plants.

The Einride-Maersk collapse fits this pattern perfectly. When Maersk cited “external market conditions” in that October email, they were acknowledging what we’ve been tracking for months: subsidy-dependent EV strategies fail when subsidies disappear.

Compare this American struggle to China’s electric truck boom, where sales surged 175% in the first half of 2025 to reach 76,100 units. Chinese operators are making electric trucks work through superior charging infrastructure and genuine government commitment rather than on-again, off-again subsidies that change with every election.

The irony here is thick. Maersk invested in Einride through its venture capital arm in 2021, then terminated their operational partnership three years later when market conditions deteriorated. It’s the corporate equivalent of betting on electric trucks with other people’s money while maintaining the flexibility to walk away from actual fleet commitments when the bill comes due.

For Einride, the lawsuit represents an existential threat just as they’re trying to go public. The company can’t attract SPAC investors while hemorrhaging marquee customers. For Maersk, the legal battle exposes the gap between sustainability marketing and business reality when profit margins are squeezed.

The real question is whether any U.S. logistics operator can make battery-electric heavy-duty trucks work in the post-subsidy environment. Tesla Semi pilots with companies like ArcBest show promise, but those are small-scale tests, not the 300-truck deployments that Maersk originally committed to.

This lawsuit isn’t just about two companies finger-pointing over a failed partnership. It’s about an entire industry discovering that electric truck economics don’t work without perpetual government life support.

Where this goes next matters. If Einride wins, it could establish that logistics companies can’t back out of EV commitments just because subsidies disappear. If Maersk prevails, it sends a clear signal that corporate sustainability promises are worthless when market conditions turn.

Either way, the American electric trucking industry just got a reality check.