Is there room in the market for another Class 8 electric truck? Well, legacy OEMs such as Volvo, Daimler Truck and Traton all make electric trucks, but they seem more interested in lobbying and litigating to stall the EV transition than competing in the electric truck market, while upstarts such as Tesla and Windrose are offering Class 8 trucks at lower prices.
Now, a startup called Horizon Motor has debuted a Class 8 electric semi, which it positions as a direct challenger to the Tesla Semi.
Clean Trucking Senior Editor Jay Traugott got a look at the new e-truck, and spoke with Horizon CEO Sean Jones, at the recent ACT Expo 2026.
Horizon’s tractor features a two-seat half-sleeper cab and a dual-plug CCS1 charging system. Curb weight is 29,000 pounds, and the company says it delivers a 350-mile range.
The truck Jay saw is the company’s first production unit, and it’s going to a California fleet customer for real-world testing. Horizon plans to start taking orders soon, and say it can deliver new trucks on a timeline of 120-150 days.
Horizon has plans to transition to solid-state batteries in the future. Jones told Clean Trucking that his company has signed an agreement to buy up to one gigawatt worth of solid-state batteries, which have twice the energy density of the company’s current batteries. “When that agreement goes through, we should be able to start swapping our vehicles over to the new solid-state batteries, so we have the choice of either dropping half the battery weight or doubling range.”
Jones sees electric replacing diesel in many use cases in the near future. “It’s by far the best ROI you have,” he told Jay. “You’re talking about normally like 60 percent fuel savings and right now almost 80 percent fuel savings. And these things are such simple vehicles compared with diesel. You’ve got a battery, you’ve got a motor, you’ve got some controllers. I was at some presentations about the new diesel trucks and what they’re doing to try and make them more efficient. Basically they’re just adding a lot more complexity.”
However, EVs may not replace diesel on long-haul routes any time soon. “It’s not going to work for long-haul thousand-mile trips,” says Jones. “The infrastructure isn’t there. There are places where diesel is going to be around for a long, long time.”
What about hydrogen? “We actually built a hydrogen fuel cell truck back in 2019. And just the complexity of those things and trying to get the fuel cells not to fail after 60,000 miles—and the testing that you have to do on the tanks regularly. Even with diesel at the current price, hydrogen’s best case is about three times the cost per mile. We just could not figure out a way our customers could make money with it.”
Source: Clean Trucking
