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Inceptio says the tech enables a very long-distance trucking
trip to be completed by one driver rather than two as is often
required and can reduce hauling costs by 5% to 7%.
Under its current business model, Inceptio develops the
technology, state-owned Dongfeng Automobile Co, manufactures the
trucks which are then sold to clients such as Nestle, Budweiser
and large Chinese freight companies like ZT Freight and Deppon
Express.
Growing cost pressures on such companies will drive demand, said
Chief Executive Julian Ma who spoke with Reuters in an interview
and at a media event.
"This is a new 'blue ocean' market," he said, using a phrase
that describes an underdeveloped market with few competitors.
Inceptio's rivals include China's Plus.ai and TuSimple, which is
Chinese-founded but headquartered in the U.S.
"China is leading globally in terms of building the industry
with suppliers of chips, sensors, the automakers and developers
of autonomous trucking technologies," he said.
The company has raised more than $678 million since 2020 from
investors including CATL and Hongshan, previously known as
Sequoia China.
Over the next three to five years, Inceptio is looking at
offering services to help manage truck fleets, Ma said.
While China's trucking market is very big, worth some 4 trillion
yuan ($550 billion) annually, tough competition means profit
margins tend to be thin and Inceptio now plans to "test the
waters" in overseas markets such as South East Asia, the Middle
East and Japan from next year, Ma added.
The U.S. market was "beyond reach due to geopolitical reasons,"
he also said.
China has a highly fragmented trucking industry. Boston
Consulting estimated in 2021 that the country had 7.3 million
heavy trucks on the road.
Inceptio eventually hopes that trucks will be eventually allowed
to go fully autonomous, enabling it to build a robotruck fleet.
China could see two to three robotruck-focused firms emerge in
the next three to five years should regulations go in that
direction, Ma said.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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