US Shipper Alliance ZET SCALE Orders 2,500 Electric Heavy Trucks — Tesla as Primary OEM, Residual-Value Risk Removed Through a Lease

On September 22, 2026, US clean transportation non-profit Catalyst Mobility (formerly CALSTART) and freight decarbonisation non-profit the Smart Freight Centre announced that an order for 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 (heavy-duty) trucks had been placed through the shipper alliance ZET SCALE. It is the largest electric truck order in the United States and, they say, large enough to nearly double the US electric Class 8 truck fleet.

What sets this deal apart is that the buyer is not a carrier but an alliance of shippers that own the cargo.

Shippers Pooled Demand Before Going to Tender

ZET SCALE (Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification) is a programme jointly run by Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre. Its founding shippers include Microsoft and PepsiCo, each supporting the initiative with different levels of engagement and different ways of signalling demand.

By pooling freight demand to a scale no single company could reach and taking it to an independently run RFP (request for proposals), the alliance says it drew competitive pricing from every participating truck maker. Four criteria were evaluated: price, range, charging capability and production capacity. As a result, Tesla was selected as primary OEM for the first 2,500 trucks. Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo are listed as secondary OEMs that carriers can choose to match their own operating conditions.

The inclusion of production capacity as a criterion should not be overlooked. At 2,500 units, whether the maker can deliver the committed volume on schedule becomes a selection condition alongside unit price.

Removing Residual-Value Risk Through a Lease

The purchase order for the first 2,500 trucks is being issued by ZET Financial, a strategic partner of ZET SCALE, which will deploy them through a fair market value (FMV) lease. Its lease product, "ZET Lease", is designed to eliminate the residual-value risk borne by carriers and fleet operators. The announcement identifies this residual-value risk as the barrier that has kept many carriers from adopting electric trucks.

So why does this lease remove residual-value risk from carriers? Let us walk through the mechanism step by step.

What Is "Residual-Value Risk"?

Residual value is what a vehicle is worth after a period of use — in other words, what it can be sold for when it is let go. Diesel heavy trucks have a deep used market, and it is broadly possible to read what a truck will fetch after a given number of years.

Electric heavy trucks are different. They have been on the market only briefly and have almost no used-trade history. Three further factors make their future value hard to read.

• Battery degradation: the next buyer finds it hard to assess how much capacity a battery retains after several years of use
• Technology progress: batteries and range are improving quickly, so older models tend to lose value each time a new one appears
• Changes in new-vehicle prices: if new trucks get cheaper as volumes rise, used prices are dragged down too

An asset whose resale value in three to five years nobody can predict is a heavy burden for its owner. A carrier that buys outright takes any shortfall against expectations as a direct loss. Lenders also estimate conservatively, which means demanding larger down payments or higher monthly repayments.

With a Purchase or a Conventional Lease, the Risk Stays with the Carrier

If a carrier buys the truck, it naturally carries all of the residual-value risk.

Leasing does not necessarily solve this either. Under the TRAC lease (Terminal Rental Adjustment Clause) widely used in the US trucking industry, the residual value at the end of the term is set at signing, and the lessee guarantees that amount. At the end of the term the vehicle is sold; if the sale price falls below the guaranteed amount the lessee pays the difference, and if it exceeds it the lessee receives the difference. It is a lease in form, but the economic risk of used-price swings stays with the lessee.

ZET Lease: Hand It Back and You Are Done

ZET Financial describes ZET Lease as an "FMV walk-away" lease and lists "No Residual Obligation" among its key terms. The company says that, unlike traditional ownership models, users can deploy electric trucks without assuming long-term residual-value risk.

Broken down, the mechanism works like this.

1. The leasing company estimates the residual value: at signing, ZET Financial sets an assumption for the vehicle's value at the end of the term 2. Monthly payments mainly cover the depreciation: the user pays chiefly for the vehicle price minus the assumed residual value, plus interest and fees 3. At the end of the term, returning the truck is enough: the user hands the truck back and the contract ends. Even if the actual used price is below the assumption, there is no obligation to pay the difference

Hypothetical numbers make this easier to see. Suppose the vehicle price is 100 and the assumed residual value is 40. The monthly payment is roughly the difference of 60 plus interest, divided over the term. Even if the used market has fallen to 25 by the end of the term, the carrier simply returns the truck. The gap of 15 against the assumption is borne by ZET Financial, the owner. Under a TRAC lease, that 15 would be paid by the carrier.

In other words, ZET Lease moves the contractual allocation of who bears the loss when the residual-value forecast is wrong from the carrier to the leasing company.

In addition, the company lists $0 down and up to 100% financing as standard terms. It also says that an upgrade option opens from month 36 of the contract, pitching the ability of fleets to stay flexible as battery technology evolves. Because it helps avoid being stuck with older models while their value erodes, this too can be seen as a hedge against technological obsolescence.

The Risk Has Not Disappeared — It Has Changed Hands

It is worth noting that the underlying problem — that the used value of electric trucks is hard to read — has not been solved. The risk has simply been moved to a party better able to handle it. Possible reasons why ZET Financial can take it on include the following.

• Smoothing through volume: the same framework handles 2,500 trucks now and more than 10,000 in future, making it easier to average out price swings for individual vehicles across a large fleet
• Expertise: according to the announcement, ZET Financial has more than 25 years of experience in Class 8 truck leasing and asset management, and likely has know-how in remarketing and redeploying returned vehicles
• A home for demand: because the trucks operate within an alliance where shippers pool freight, there may be room to move returned trucks to other carriers or hubs (this is our assessment, not something stated in the announcement)
• Screening before deployment: the company says every engagement starts with a TCO (total cost of operation) analysis comparing electric and diesel trucks using real operating data. Avoiding deployments that do not fit operating conditions also limits the risk of vehicle overuse or early return

On the other hand, the risk a leasing company takes on is normally priced into the lease rate in some form. Whether carriers come out ahead overall depends on the lease rate and term, and the announcement does not disclose those terms.

The Adoption Question Changes

For carriers, what this mechanism changes is the substance of the decision. The unreadable bet on "what will this sell for in a few years?" disappears, replaced by a comparison: "do the monthly payments plus electricity and maintenance costs stack up against the operating cost of a diesel truck?"

Beyond pushing down vehicle prices through the RFP, the lease side absorbs the uncertainty in used value. Acting on both price and finance is the core of this framework.

Deployment Concentrated in 10 Freight Hubs

Deployment is limited to dense freight hubs with the best initial routes and economics. The first-round hubs are mainly the following ten.

• California: Southern (Los Angeles), Northern (Stockton), Central (Bakersfield)
• Washington: Seattle/Tacoma
• Texas: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio
• Chicago area, Atlanta, Northern New Jersey/Newark/New York

The hubs are narrowed down to raise the utilisation of both trucks and charging infrastructure and to further lower total cost of ownership (TCO), the alliance says.

Charging and Power Equipment Demand Rises Hub by Hub

ZET SCALE calls this "the first chapter" and targets expansion to more than 10,000 trucks. It is also inviting additional shippers and carriers to join.

For suppliers of charging and power equipment, the deal points to a pattern in which heavy-vehicle charging demand does not spread evenly across the country but rises in concentration at specific freight hubs where shippers have pooled demand. Beyond national electric truck adoption forecasts, it is necessary to track which hubs demand is gathering in.

The announcement does not disclose the per-truck price, lease rates and terms, delivery timing, or the allocation of trucks to each hub.

Referenced Fact Cards