Sunswap are now operating across the UK, Europe, South America, and Australia. That’s happened faster than we planned, and it’s worth explaining why.
We delivered our electric transport refrigeration units to operators in Chile and Australia last year. They wanted the technology based on performance data from UK and European fleets. For operators to choose equipment from a manufacturer they’d never worked with before, in a market that’s been controlled by the same two companies for decades, the technology must be demonstrably better.
What transport refrigeration should deliver
We started Sunswap with a straightforward belief: we could build a better refrigeration system for trailers. Not a greener version of what already exists, but fundamentally better technology.
That meant asking different questions from the start. Not how to make diesel cleaner, but what transport refrigeration actually needs to deliver for operators managing modern cold chains.
The answer included zero emissions, but it started with performance and control. Refrigeration that maintains temperature reliably. Systems that provide real-time data on energy usage, temperature accuracy, and maintenance needs. Solar integration that reduces operating costs and grid charging dependency.
Most importantly, technology that actually tells fleet managers what’s happening with their cold chain rather than leaving them blind.
The legacy technology problem
Current diesel systems maintain temperature, but they provide almost no operational insight. Endurance provides real-time data on performance, predictive maintenance alerts, and even software updates to keep improving the units over time. It offers a step change for the technology in the sector.
When your business model is built around diesel dealer networks, parts inventory, and service relationships, there’s limited incentive to fundamentally change the technology.
We didn’t have those constraints. When our CTO, Nikolai, and the engineering team designed Endurance, they could optimise purely for what operators need rather than what fits into existing infrastructure.
The result is a system with fewer components, lower weight, and better efficiency. It performs better in operations than diesel, provides data visibility diesel systems never offered, and costs significantly less to operate.
Why this matters now
The conversation with fleet managers has shifted over the past year, and it’s shifted in the same way across different markets. It used to be about whether electric refrigeration could match diesel performance. That question was answered by UK and European fleets first, which is why operators in Chile and Australia started paying attention.
The conversation now is about what standard transport refrigeration should actually meet. This means real-time performance monitoring, predictive maintenance capability and operational cost reductions that genuinely matter. Technology designed for how cold chains operate today.
Fleet managers deserve systems that provide visibility, control, and economics that make sense for modern logistics operations.
Setting a new standard
Going global isn’t about geographic expansion for its own sake. It’s evidence that when you set a higher standard for transport refrigeration people will take notice. We didn’t believe when we founded Sunswap in 2020 we would already be operating on three continents, but fleets want access to data, more control, and better economics. Zero emissions is an outcome of those changes.
