Chanje is coming to the electric-vehicle industry.
The company – pronounced “change” – will debut medium-duty electric trucks for the U.S. market this fall. The company has set up a temporary headquarters in Playa Vista, and is looking to open an assembly plant in the area next year.
Chanje has its sights set on what it believes to be an untapped, lucrative niche ripe for disruption – the last-mile segment of the delivery market.
Chanje’s product, a zero-emission all-electric delivery truck, is designed to haul up to 6,000 pounds of goods with a 100-mile range and is meant to compete against similar short-haul commercial vehicles on the “last mile.” The term refers to the last leg – rather than actual distance – of product movement. That’s often a relatively short hop from a distribution or processing center en route to the final destination, such as a customer’s home.
Chanje is backed by Hong Kong-based FDG Electric Vehicles, which makes battery packs and electric vehicles in Hangzhou, China.
FDG, Chanje and other partners have invested nearly $1 billion combined into developing the product, said Bryan Hansel, chief executive of Chanje.
FDG has the rights to sell the trucks in China, while Chanje has U.S. distribution.
Chanje’s executive team includes talent drawn from companies such as Tesla Inc., Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co. as well as the L.A. Cleanteach Incubator.
Chanje is actively scouting for a potential assembly production facility in the L.A. area.
“We made a strategic decision to choose L.A.,” said Hansel. “We haven’t zeroed in on an assembly factory location yet, but factors like port access, the right talent and labor pool are things we’re keeping in mind as we move along with our search.”
The company said it already secured orders for fall, but Hansel wouldn’t say how many units or discuss specifics on sale or lease pricing.
It offered only limited details on a deal struck last week with Miami-based Ryder System Inc., one of the largest medium-duty truck fleet management companies in the country.
“The Ryder deal will help facilitate introduction of the vehicles – they have purchased a number of Chanje trucks, which it will use for its rental and leasing fleet,” said James Chen, vice president of Chanje. “Chanje will also sell its vehicle, the V8070, through its own sales department.”
The company, which was founded in May 2015 and employs around 50 people, is one of the few electric-vehicle makers targeting the last-mile segment of the supply chain, but the move comes as no surprise to experts.
“We’re at the beginning stages of seeing a push into the last-mile delivery sector by electric-vehicle companies,” said Nick Vyas, director of the Center for Global Supply Chain Management at USC. “China leads the market, and it’s quite something to watch it methodically execute its strategy for electric vehicles.”
China overtook the United States as the largest electric-vehicle market last year, according to the International Energy Agency, a coalition of 29 countries working toward clean energy.
Chanje identified a gap when it came to electric-vehicle makers and the last-mile market, which has become more important with the rise of e-commerce. Steady shifts to online shopping have come with new options for deliveries, leading to an increase in distribution centers in metropolitan areas throughout the country, Vyas said.
Goods coming into the country via the local ports and then heading to retailers and small businesses are at an all-time high, according to the latest cargo numbers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Vyas noted that most last-mile delivery trucks, such as those delivering parcels and food, drive 50 to 70 miles a day on diesel fuel.
Chanje said its trucks can run 100 miles before recharge, making it a viable option for last-mile delivery and one that also allows companies to market their operations as environmentally friendly.
Hansel said that Chanje is not a subsidiary but an independent business in a partnership with FDG.
“They have sold a couple thousand Chanje vehicles in China already,” he said, noting that FDG sells them under the brand name Chang Jiang.
FDG operates a 3.8 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China, and the first few shipments of the electric trucks meant for the U.S market arriving this fall will be manufactured and assembled there.
Hansel said that assembly of the vehicle will eventually transition to the United States.
“Our initial strategy is import,” he said. “We plan to have our assembly production facility up and running in 2018.”
A potential local competitor to Chanje’s vehicles is Ontario-based Phoenix Motorcars, which manufactures zero-emission light- and medium-duty trucks, said Michael Boehm, co-chairman of Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.’s E4 Mobility Alliance, an outfit promoting Southern California’s advanced transportation industry.
However, Phoenix caters its midsize electric shuttle buses and electric utility vehicles to a different market, focusing on commercial and government fleet customers. That leaves Chanje open to tackle the last mile, Boehm said.
