Gasgoo Munich- Zaihe Truck, an emerging player in the AI heavy-duty truck sector, has recently closed a funding round worth about 1 billion yuan.The round drew support from top-tier venture capital firms including BV Baidu Ventures, Su Ventures, and Lushi Investment. Beyond funding, Zaihe forged deep "investment plus industrial chain" ties with strategic players like Horizon Robotics, Chuangyuan Group, and Wan'an Technology. It also secured comprehensive financial backing from five major state-owned banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank. With this, the company has completed a capital strategy integrating equity, debt, and industrial resources.Image source: Zaihe TruckEstablished in August 2022, Zaihe Truck was incubated by Tsinghua University Suzhou Automotive Research Institute and Suzhou High-Speed Rail New Town. Headquartered in Suzhou's Xiangcheng District, the startup positions itself as a new brand dedicated to new energy intelligent connected commercial vehicles.From the outset, Zaihe Truck has committed to full original development and technological independence, rejecting the transitional path of converting internal combustion models to electric power. Instead, the company has focused on core technologies such as lightweight design, low energy consumption, high reliability, and integrated vehicle-cloud intelligence, building a solid product foundation that is difficult to replicate.In the view of Zhang Lei, converting existing fuel platforms is merely a stopgap for traditional commercial vehicle electrification. Constrained by the physical limitations of internal combustion architectures, the efficiency and intelligence ceilings of such models are clearly visible — and destined for replacement.To that end, Zaihe's R&D team has fully leveraged AI agents to independently develop an integrated domain control system combining "battery, motor, and control electronics" with smart chassis and thermal management. The company has already completed development of seven vehicle models across four series: the Lightweight, Ocean Vessel, Special Forces, and Pioneer series.Notably, Zaihe has launched the world's longest-range hydrogen-electric flagship heavy truck, capable of 1,500 km on a single charge. The model has been delivered in batches to SF Express for operations.To date, Zaihe's heavy-truck operations span more than ten provinces, including Shaanxi, Henan, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Jiangsu, covering core scenarios such as express delivery and bulk logistics. The company has accumulated tens of millions of km in customer operations and autonomous driving tests.About "Seeds Discovery":Gasgoo's "Seeds Discovery" column aims to build a service platform connecting startups, industrial ecosystem partners, investment firms, and local governments, providing deep empowerment across the upstream and downstream supply chain. Since its inception, the column has been dedicated to identifying outstanding companies, technologies, and business models that offer inspiration and leadership during the wave of intelligent transformation, driving the growth of innovative forces in the auto industry. According to Gasgoo statistics, nearly every startup featured in "Seeds Discovery" has successfully connected with resources across the industrial ecosystem.
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