China's New Energy Heavy Trucks Grew Despite an Overall Slump

New energy heavy-duty truck sales in China jumped by 1300 percent year on year to 2283 units in January, 2022. XCMG climbed up to the first place with 484 new energy heavy-duty truck sales in January. SAIC Hongyan showed a very strong sales increase in February mainly driven by the 1000-unit purchase order from Jiafeng Stone and NDT. SINOTRUK is expected to launch 12 new products in 2022 alone, including tractor head, dumping truck and cargo truck and more powered by pure electric, hydrogen fuel, and hybrid.

Additionally, enterprises in the new energy industry chain have rushed to layout in the domain of new energy heavy-duty trucks. On February 23, CATL and SANY publicly announced that Fu Ning Line, China’s first highway route for electric heavy duty truck, was officially put into operation. Meanwhile, CATL will work with Fujian Provincial Expressway Group to jointly create a high-speed power exchange network in Fujian Province.

“The development of new energy passenger car in China is in full swing, but the development of new energy commercial vehicles has just begun.” Fan Xianjun, president of Geely Commercial Vehicle Group, told the reporter. The global commercial industry reformation has allotted a time-window for the adjustment of the automotive industry chain and the expansion of the ecosystem, building new tracks for the future.

Globally speaking, Volvo truck will take electric heavy-duty trucks as its main business while developing natural gas and hybrid heavy-duty trucks. Its full line of heavy-duty electric trucks has begun trial sales in Europe last year and will start mass production in 2022. Daimler, Volvo and Volkswagen's TRATON Group announced the formation of a joint venture to lay out a commercial vehicle charging and energy replenishment network in 2021. Meanwhile, Daimler and Volvo entered into a collaboration to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology for heavy-duty trucks. Startup firms keep on popping up everywhere in commercial vehicle industry, such as Tesla unveiled the Semi-tractor and Cybertruck pickup truck, and EV startup Rivian constructed the smart sustainable supply chain system for Amazon.

Sales of Hydrogen powered heavy-duty trucks in China are estimated to reach 3500 units in 2022. The strong growth in China’s commercial vehicle market in the past few years has enabled more international giants rush to layout in commercial vehicles.