Tsinghua-affiliated NEV heavy truck maker Zaihe Truck secures RMB 1 billion in funding

Zaihe Trucks recently completed a financing round exceeding RMB 1 billion. This round attracted equity investments from institutions including Baidu Ventures, Suzhou Venture Capital, and Lushi Investment. Additionally, Zaihe secured strategic partnerships with industry players such as Horizon Robotics, Chuangyuan Group, and Wan’an Technology, and obtained debt financing support from China’s five major state-owned banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) among them—establishing a unique “equity + debt + industry” integrated capital structure. Founded in August 2022 and jointly incubated by the Tsinghua University Suzhou Automotive Research Institute and Suzhou High-Speed Rail New City, Zaihe Trucks is headquartered in Xiangcheng District, Suzhou. The company positions itself as a new-energy intelligent connected commercial vehicle brand. It adheres to a full forward-development approach, rejecting “retrofitted electric” solutions, and focuses on lightweight design, low energy consumption, high reliability, and cloud-integrated intelligent technologies. Its self-developed integrated domain control system—combining “three-electric systems (battery, motor, and electronic control) + intelligent chassis + thermal management”—has been deployed across seven models spanning four vehicle series: Light Hero, Ocean Voyager, Special Forces, and Pioneer. Notably, the world’s first hydrogen-electric heavy-duty truck with a range of 1,500 kilometers has already entered mass delivery to SF Express. Currently, Zaihe Trucks operates in over ten provinces, including Shaanxi, Henan, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Jiangsu, serving express parcel delivery and bulk logistics sectors. The company has accumulated tens of millions of kilometers in customer operations and autonomous driving test mileage.