Australian diesel to electric truck conversion Janus Electric has landed its second major order in a week, with new contracts worth around $45 million adding another 67 truck conversions to its order book in north America, taking its total number to 112.
The company said the new orders come from four California-based fleets – Golden State Express, Tradelink Transport , and King Fio Trucking and Wehaco – and will more than quadruple its order book from 20 to 87 conversions.
They follow a $10 million order for 16 conversions from Ability Tri-Modal that was announced earlier this week. It has another 25 orders in Canada.
The California order book has been enabled by generous incentives at state and local levels that effectively reduce the net cost of a a Janus conversion to near zero, and with other support that reduce the cost of battery swaps and charging stations.
The new customer serve the freight and port drayage market in Los Angeles and Long Beach and Janus says it validates its business model. Tradelink and King Fio already have established electric truck fleets and are taking 27 conversion kits and 33 swappable batteries between them.
It also holds promise for the future, given that both Golden State Express and Wehaco (who are ordering 20 conversion kits each and 22 swappable batteries) are led by Fred Johring, one of the founding members of the Harbor Trucking Association whose members collectively operate more than 33,500 trucks.
“Securing signed orders from four additional California fleet operators immediately after Ability Tri-Modal expanded its commitment demonstrates the strong commercial momentum building in our US business,” said Janus Electric CEO Ben Hutt.
“In announcements this week, our US order book has grown from four to 87 truck conversions across five fleet operators, taking our North American order book to 112 conversions.
“These orders significantly broaden our US customer base and the decision of these operators to adopt the Janus conversion and battery-swap platform provides important customer validation. Our focus is now on scaling production and converting this order book into delivered vehicles and long-term recurring revenue.”
The California voucher program for clean transport, combined with support from the Port of Los Angeles, can provide combined incentives of approximately US$166,000 per truck, materially reducing the net cost of a Janus conversion.
In addition to voucher-based incentives, the Port of Los Angeles is administering a $75 million zero-emission truck purchasing incentive program offering up to $300,000 per truck for qualifying fleet operators.
Golden State Express and WEHACO are working with Janus Electric to assess eligibility and prepare applications ahead of the December 2026 deadline. Production and delivery scheduling for the orders will be finalised following incentive approvals with first deliveries expected to commence in the fourth quarter of calendar 2026 and build through 2027.
Johring said in a statement that the Janus battery-swap platform gives his company the ability to electrify its existing fleet without sacrificing productivity.
The grant support available in California makes the economics work, and being able to run two affiliated fleets off shared infrastructure is exactly the kind of solution we have been looking for,” he said in a statement.
Rigoberto Cea, the president of Tradelink Transport, said electrification isn’t new to the company.
“With one-third of our fleet already operating as battery -electric, the Janus conversation platform helps us build on that momentum by providing another scalable solution to accelerate our journey toward a 100% zero emissions fleet,” he said.
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