New energy heavy-duty trucks from Zeron, a Chinese electric heavy-duty truck startup. Credit: Zeron
- Zeron generated 522 million yuan in revenue in 2025 and achieved positive operating cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Zeron focuses on new-energy smart heavy-duty trucks, with proprietary autonomous driving technology aimed at significantly reducing costs and boosting efficiency.
Zeron, a Chinese electric heavy-duty truck startup, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, marking an accelerated push into global capital markets just four years after its founding.
Dubbed the Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) of trucks in China, Zeron submitted its listing application on May 28 to trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s main board, according to a filing on the bourse’s website.
The company was founded in June 2022 by Huang Zehua, a former co-founder of TuSimple, with the ambition of pioneering a new era of global highway transportation robots.
The filing follows a flurry of major capital injections in March and May this year. The company completed a 1.2 billion yuan ($177.2 million) funding round in March. Combined with its recent Series B2 round, its cumulative financing over the past two months has reached $400 million.
The startup boasts a formidable lineup of investors, gathering top-tier industrial and international capital. Prominent backers including CATL, Temasek, Momenta, Nio Capital, Zijin Mining, and Moutai Investment participated in its recent funding rounds.
The addition of industrial capital will propel Zeron’s business expansion in core scenarios such as mining transportation and industrial logistics. Meanwhile, the participation of international capital reflects sustained global investor interest in China’s autonomous driving industry.
Zeron is the world’s first company to possess both vertical integration capabilities for smart heavy trucks and end-to-end autonomous driving technology, according to its prospectus.
Its autonomous driving system is the industry’s first end-to-end multimodal large language model for autonomous driving. The system enables full-process automation from sensor input to driving trajectory generation, significantly boosting research and development efficiency.
Compared to traditional modular architectures, Zeron’s technology reduces the complexity of critical systems by about 95%, the prospectus showed.
At the same time, its data annotation costs are about 95% lower than the industry average, demonstrating strong cost-control capabilities.
On the core vehicle technology front, the company has developed its proprietary Matrix four-in-one electric drive axle.
This technology integrates components like the motor and gearbox into a lightweight unit, shedding over 200 kilograms by eliminating the driveshaft and increasing maximum system efficiency to 94%.
Globally, Elon Musk’s Tesla is showcasing the development trend of new-energy heavy trucks through its Semi model.
Zeron, however, is achieving a faster pace of commercialization by leveraging a focused strategy and the advantages of China’s supply chain.
As of the end of 2025, Zeron had delivered nearly 1,500 units cumulatively. Its main products are the Awaken and Ripen new energy heavy-duty trucks.
In the first four months of 2026, its new-energy heavy truck deliveries reached 778 units, representing a 334.6% surge year-on-year.
The robust sales performance has significantly improved the company’s financial health.
Zeron’s revenue grew from 1.16 million yuan in 2023 to 124 million yuan in 2024, and further expanded to 522 million yuan in 2025.
Its gross loss margin narrowed drastically from 287.2% in 2023 to 2.5% in 2025, approaching gross profit breakeven.
The company achieved positive operating cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2025.
In its autonomous driving business, Zeron continues to advance the roll-out of its progressive scenario-based technology roadmap. Heavy trucks equipped with end-to-end and multimodal large model technologies are currently undergoing testing in real-world closed environments.
Boonray has secured a RMB 100 million ($14.4 million) investment from BYD to advance the adoption of new energy technologies in heavy-duty industries.
($1 = 6.7708 yuan)
