ASX-listed heavy vehicle electrification company Janus Electric will consider raising capital from infrastructure funds as it expands its operating fleet and establishes a track record of asset-level returns at scale, MD and CEO Ben Hutt told Infralogic.

To fund its first wave of charging stations and batteries as an initial proof of concept, Janus is using a portion of its recent AUD 11m corporate debt facility from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“The assets can be securitized and bundled up, a bit like mortgages, and several millions of dollars of these can be pushed off into an infrastructure fund,” Hutt said.

“As we demonstrate what the return profile is for those, I would expect the appetite to fund those things to increase over time,” he added.

There’s also a “natural infrastructure play” in partnerships such as the one with Ability Tri-modal in the US, said Hutt, where the California-based logistics operator aims to run 20 trucks entirely off-grid.

“That’s possible because they’ve got solar in their warehouse, and our charge station acts as a battery with spare batteries in it during the day. The economics for them of doing that rather than running these trucks on diesel is phenomenal,” said Hutt.

By potentially linking hundreds of warehouse stations, Janus uses its customers’ warehouses and roofs to not just replace diesel fuel with electricity, but it also builds a clean-energy utility network, creating a virtual power plant asset, said Hutt.

“You’re saving more money on fuel than you could believe, and you’re powering your facility for free as well,” he added.

Janus, which last month tied up with North America’s industrial terminals operator ConGlobal, aims to have trucks on the road in the US starting this month, said Hutt.

The initial pilot is for a 20-truck conversion program, focused on Class 8 heavy trucks operated by local fleets and independent owner-operators, according to a 26 October announcement.

If the Texas pilot proves commercially and operationally successful, the memorandum of understanding outlines a phased national rollout across ConGlobal’s entire US network of 31 depot locations. Hutt declined to provide a timeline for the rollout.

While Janus has multiple orders in the US, the bulk of which is with contracted fleet operators serving the Ports of Los Angeles, and Long Beach, the agreement with ConGlobal marks Janus Electric’s first geographical expansion outside of California. The company’s growth strategy – Horizon Two – targets five regions to scale the platform beyond California in the coming years.

Hutt sees a “massive opportunity” to partner with fleet leasing businesses.

When a truck comes back at the end of a five-year lease, they can be electrified and leased back, instead of rebuilding the diesel engines, said Hutt.

“That’s something that I think is a very large opportunity for us in all the markets that we operate in, but particularly those markets where there are financial incentives to fleet operators or to others for doing that, because it massively brings down the capital expenditure,” said Hutt.

While California launched its Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) programme in 2009 to initially fund early-stage lower-emission commercial vehicle technologies, the program later adapted its framework to heavily incentivize and prioritize 100% zero-emission electric vehicles and zero-emission conversions.

There are “grant pools that are popping up across North America. It is clear that state governments are copying to some extent what’s happened in California, where they’ve been trying to deal with the emissions around the port (Port of Los Angeles) in particular for a number of years now,” said Hutt, adding that trucks account for more than 50% of the emissions at a port.

The ConGlobal partnership reflects Janus’ capital-light strategy, said Hutt. While Janus relies on customer-funded sites, it also secures agreements with existing charging providers to host Janus battery-swapping stations, allowing the company to plug directly into established energy ecosystems.

Fountaindale, NSW-based Janus Electric was founded by a generational trucking family and listed on the ASX under its present name in 2025. It offers turnkey solutions through its patented battery swap platform, truck conversion kits, charging infrastructure and integrated fleet management software, operating in Australia, the United States and Canada, according to a 4 November company presentation.