New-energy heavy-duty trucks逆势 capture over half the market; the fuel-vs-electric battle extends to trunk-line transportation.

XCMG’s Hanjing, launched in September, focuses on megawatt-level ultra-fast charging; the company claims its battery can be recharged from 20% to 80% in under 20 minutes. In October, Volvo FH Aero—introduced to the Chinese market—continued optimizing fuel efficiency, with Volvo stating it achieves 4% lower fuel consumption than the similarly configured FH TC model. One camp shortens energy-refueling time; the other keeps squeezing fuel savings. Both powertrains compete for high-mileage, high-utilization transport demands. While diesel-powered vehicles continue evolving, electric trucks must ensure their energy-cost savings offset higher upfront purchase costs, refueling infrastructure expenses, and payload penalties. These trade-offs are already evident in real-world operations. A study jointly released this year by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) and the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), based on a survey of an automotive parts logistics fleet in the Yangtze River Delta region conducted in 2025, found that on routes exceeding 400 km one-way, electric box trucks—recharging overnight at 60 kW charging stations at destinations—typically require about half a day longer than diesel trucks to complete round-trips. Their maximum effective payload is also 2.2 tons less than that of comparable diesel trucks. The study calculated total cost of ownership (TCO) per ton-kilometer over a five-year holding period: under ideal conditions—including 140,000 km annual mileage, full coverage of 240 kW charging infrastructure, same-day round-trip capability, no payload loss, and no low-temperature battery degradation—electric trucks’ TCO is approximately 19% lower than diesel trucks’. However, if annual mileage drops to 32,000 km while all other conditions remain unchanged, electric trucks instead incur roughly a 2% cost disadvantage. For fleet operators, the more kilometers driven, the greater the opportunity for energy savings to recoup initial investment. Fixed routes, stable cargo volumes, and predictable refueling windows thus directly influence vehicle replacement decisions. By contrast, vehicles operating on frequently changing routes—or those needing to locate charging points ad hoc after receiving orders—must bear additional dispatching costs. When charging infrastructure availability misaligns with departure schedules, vehicles may miss an entire trip; increasing battery capacity eases range anxiety but adds vehicle weight and capital tie-up. Electrifying trunk-line transport therefore requires coordinated improvements across vehicle design, energy-refueling infrastructure, and operational planning. CATL’s ‘dual-electric extended-range’ solution for the Tianxing II heavy-duty truck, unveiled on October 20, directly addresses these challenges: a primary drive battery mounted beneath the chassis is offered via battery-as-a-service leasing, supplemented by a 77 kWh onboard auxiliary battery providing reserve power. CATL states that, when paired with Qiji battery-swapping, a full battery swap can be completed within five minutes.

Pioneering the 'dual-electric extended-range' architecture, CATL enters the battery-swap arena.

Five-minute, high-power-rate standardized energy replenishment The Tianxing II ‘dual-electric extended-range’ variant entered mass production immediately upon launch, with initial contracts signed for 13,000 units. These orders provide valuable market feedback—but large-scale operation requires another critical enabler: reliable, widely available refueling services along transport corridors. This is especially true for trunk-line logistics. A single vehicle’s refueling schedule affects delivery timing, vehicle scheduling, and subsequent order fulfillment. Even if one refueling event is fast, unpredictable waiting times along the route compel fleets to build generous time buffers into entire line-haul schedules. Such waiting costs propagate throughout the logistics chain. Yang Jun, CEO of Qiji, identified network coverage and optimal resource allocation as key breakthrough directions. At the launch event, constraints on expressway trunk lines were summarized into four scarce resources: land, time, grid capacity, and payload. I believe this also suggests a fundamental criterion for assessing heavy-duty truck electrification: evaluating any technology requires examining how efficiently it utilizes finite resources across the entire transport corridor. CATL provided concrete comparisons. Qiji’s five-minute standardized battery swap replaces the uncertain one-to-two-hour wait associated with conventional charging; a single Qiji swapping station occupies only two standard parking spaces yet can serve nearly 200 vehicles per day—boosting land-use energy-service efficiency fivefold. The stations adopt centralized, orderly slow-charging, integrated with intelligent energy dispatch systems that coordinate real-time data across vehicles, stations, batteries, and the grid—naturally enabling peak-load shaving and valley-filling. These design choices decouple vehicle refueling rhythm from battery charging rhythm: vehicles return swiftly to transport duty, while batteries undergo centralized management at stations. Transport prioritizes timeliness; grids demand stability—the system’s design purpose is precisely to harmonize these two rhythms. Gao Huan, CATL’s Chief Technology Officer for domestic passenger and commercial vehicles, remarked during the event that high-power-rate refueling for heavy-duty trucks poses no technical hurdles—but its economic viability remains questionable. This is an engineering judgment worthy of serious attention: technical capability must withstand real-world operating conditions, and performance gains must be weighed against thermal losses, battery depreciation, and long-term returns. Thus, as an observer in the audience, I prefer interpreting this launch not merely as a technological upgrade, but as a comprehensive reorganization of operational efficiency. It aims to minimize vehicle downtime, maximize battery utilization, and enable limited service-area space to support greater transport demand. Each improvement is highly specific; cumulatively, they constitute the competitiveness of an entire transport corridor. For logistics enterprises, predictable refueling time carries added significance. The more stable the refueling process, the easier it becomes to quantify required scheduling buffers—and the smoother the alignment between vehicle turnover and customer commitments. Refueling services thereby become an integral part of transport operations, and their value must be assessed within the context of the end-to-end business process. Standardization, Scale, Ecosystem To accommodate more vehicles, standardization must come first. Qiji battery swapping defines standardized battery modules by physical dimensions, launching two new standardized modules: the 260# (432 kWh) and 300# (513 kWh), tailored respectively for vehicles with 3.8 m and 4.2 m axle distances. Together with the ‘dual-electric extended-range’ 77 kWh battery pack, they form a dual-core architecture—‘onboard base power + under-chassis standardized large battery’—constituting a platform-level product. The newly launched Qiji Swapping Station 3.0 maintains the five-minute ultra-fast swap and a 99.99% single-swap success rate, while boosting daily service frequency by 28% and reducing station construction costs by 10%. Standardization enables diverse stakeholders to invest around a unified infrastructure framework—and reserves flexibility for future product iteration.

CATL bets on battery swapping to speed electrification of heavy trucks

20 hours ago

CATL unveiled its Tianxing II battery platform and plans to build 900 heavy-truck swapping stations by year-end to accelerate electrification. The company aims to reduce costs by 15% using standardized swap blocks to address charging limitations for long-haul freight.

reuters

2026-10-20

CATL bets on battery swapping to speed electrification of heavy trucks

CATL bets on battery swapping to speed electrification of heavy trucks

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