Equipment specialist, JOST, is investing €15 million in the start-up Trailer Dynamics as part of a financing round to support the advancement of trailer electrification.
Trailer Dynamics GmbH, founded in 2018, is driving the decarbonisation and increased efficiency of the transport industry with its innovative solutions.
The start-up has developed an intelligent electric drivetrain for e-trailers. This enables a significant improvement in the range of electric trucks and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The products also provide significant savings in diesel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in combination with conventional towing vehicles according to JOST.
The innovative solutions were recently recognised by the jury of the TOP 100 innovation competition.The jury also named Trailer Dynamics ‘Innovator of the Year 2024’.
TOP 100 is based on a scientific selection process
Innovation researcher Prof Dr Nikolaus Franke and his team scrutinised the applicants in advance and examined, for example, how the innovation work is structured or how successful the applicants’ innovations are on the market – 287 companies received the TOP 100 seal at the beginning of the year.
The top three innovators in each size category (three size categories in total) underwent a further, separate selection process before the award ceremony: The TOP 100 jury, comprising well-known personalities from politics and business, then decided on the ‘Innovator of the Year’ for each class.
The jury wrote in its statement: “Trailer Dynamics is developing a semi-trailer that has its own battery-electric drivetrain (‘eTrailer’) and is charged externally in the same way as an electric car. The eTrailer’s electric drivetrain supports tractor units along the entire route.
“The special feature of this eTrailer is that it can be combined with any tractor unit, regardless of the manufacturer. When coupled with a diesel lorry, fuel savings of up to 50 per cent are achieved, while the range can be doubled when used with an electric tractor unit.
“The clean-tech start-up, founded in 2018, is thus making a valuable contribution to green logistics in heavy goods transport. The company is currently in the final technical validation phase for road approval and is working closely with trailer and lorry manufacturers, logistics companies and authorities. The signs for a successful market entry are very good: Trailer Dynamics has already received more than 6,500 reservations from over 160 customers.
“Top management is the most important success factor for the company’s innovativeness.
“As a team, the two founders, together with COO Mählmann, have outstanding technological and entrepreneurial expertise and complement each other perfectly in terms of their skills and strengths.
“The company’s development to date demonstrates an exemplary systematic approach, from the concept to the imminent transition to series production and market entry. The company’s skill in recruiting highly qualified key employees is particularly noteworthy.
“To better understand the particularities of the innovation climate, it is important to know that the start-up’s previous focus was on the technological development of a complex radical innovation. Almost all employees are therefore involved in development.
“Consequently, Trailer Dynamics has recognised the granting of the necessary freedom as well as a team and solution-oriented management style as the most important success factors. Employees can use the majority of their working time to develop their own ideas.
“The company is also characterised by an above-average degree of professionalisation in its innovation processes.”
Decarbonisation goals and future outlook
Trailer Dynamics, JOST said, has already reached a high level of maturity, passed successful field tests with well-known partners and is aiming to industrialise a market-ready series product in the next 18 months.
JOST also has plans to leverage the distribution and industrialisation of its plug and play electrification kit with Trailer Dynamics.
“The transport and logistics industry needs innovative solutions to become climate-neutral while further increasing the economic efficiency of the industry,” said JOST World CEO, Joachim Dürr.
“The strategic investment in Trailer Dynamics offers JOST attractive cooperation opportunities to jointly develop new products and solutions to drive the decarbonisation of our society.”
Michael W. Nimtsch co-founder and CFO of Trailer Dynamics is looking forward to the future collaboration with JOST.
“Combining our groundbreaking e-trailer technology with the expertise of an established industry leader like JOST is a significant step to further develop our products and systems and increase our contribution to a zero-emission transport,” he said.
Following the entry of JOST as an investor, Stefan Binnewies, Board member of the Bernard Krone Holding and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Trailer Dynamics, said: “With JOST, Trailer Dynamics has gained an important strategic investor alongside Krone and Trane Technologies, which understands and is driving forward the decarbonisation of heavy goods transport. Together, we will further develop the transport and logistics industry in the coming years and open up new business areas.”
In other news, JOST’s automatic coupling technology is boosting efficiency for Teva Pharmaceuticals.
