EVwire brief: DHL is extending its electrification push beyond its own fleet and into the carriers it subcontracts to move freight, starting with a five-year, 20-truck deal between JUNA and Bavarian carrier Pflaum Logistik.
The deal runs through DHL's Partner Store program, which gives its subcontracted carriers structured, pre-negotiated access to JUNA's electric trucks. The partnership is built around several elements:
Five-year agreement: Pflaum will operate 20 JUNA electric trucks for DHL.
As-a-service model: Pflaum pays for truck usage rather than taking on the purchase, financing, and resale risk itself.
Route analysis and support: JUNA handles route and usage analysis and provides technical expertise for the deployment.
Network expansion: DHL intends to use the Partner Store model to help other subcontracted carriers make the transition to electric trucks.
JUNA announced the deal in a post on LinkedIn:
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JUNA COO Johan Kjellner described the arrangement as a way to bring individual subcontractors into a larger electrification effort:
We build long-term partnerships with industry players like DHL, and then, together with them, we bring their subcontractors into the transition one by one. That's what this agreement is: DHL, Pflaum, and JUNA committed to each other for five years, and that's how we're building one of Europe's largest electric truck fleets.
DHL Freight VP of Transport Procurement Stefan Kasprowiak said the company is working with its logistics partners alongside its own fleet decarbonization efforts:
The Partner Store enables our network partners to accelerate their sustainability journey while leveraging the scale and expertise of DHL. Pflaum's agreement with JUNA for 20 electric trucks is exactly the kind of transition we aim for and want to make possible with the Partner Store initiative.
Pflaum CEO Matthias Schellenberger, for his part, said the JUNA arrangement allows the company to add electric trucks without taking on the investment associated with owning them:
DHL and Pflaum are long-standing partners, and moving into sustainable transport together was something we always wanted to do. Working with JUNA means we can leverage their electric truck expertise and run these trucks for DHL at a comparable cost, without carrying the investment or the resale risk ourselves.
Source: JUNA
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Context:
Electromobility isn't new territory for the companies. In July, Pflaum took delivery of 45 self-owned electric trucks, one of its largest investments to date, as part of a strategy targeting 75% of its fleet on alternative fuels or drivetrains by 2030. "Once you've driven electric, you rarely want to go back to a combustion engine," Schellenberger said of that purchase at the time.
With those 45 trucks already running and 20 more arriving through JUNA, Pflaum's electric fleet will reach 65 vehicles by the end of 2026, mixing outright ownership with JUNA's as-a-service model inside the same carrier. DHL and JUNA both point to that combination as a template for extending electrification across DHL's wider subcontracted carrier network, where carriers could pair direct ownership with flexible, risk-shared deals depending on what fits their operations.
The deal also adds to a fast-growing JUNA fleet. The company recently passed 100 electric trucks across four European markets, with more scheduled to arrive before year's end.
Source: JUNA's press release
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