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Economy
54% of Chinese Domestic Heavy Truck Sales are Electric (18 Wheeler Size)
2026-05-09
[TheDriven] Electric trucks in China have already ditched diesel, now they’re ditching the driver

Electric trucks recently found the spotlight in Australia during the current fuel crisis, with the long overdue conversation on how we start building the necessary infrastructure to electrify our heavy trucks finally taking place.

Overdue is a mild term, considering Australia is only second to the US in its reliance on road freight. As former The Driven lead writer and now New Energy Transport co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Bleakley said on a recent episode of The Driven Podcast – “if Australia’s trucks stop, Australia starves”.

In China, the conversation has already moved on from whether to electrify their trucking fleet.
Of course. Electricity in China is produced from burning soft coal and nuclear power plants, not oil that can no longer be imported at below-market prices from Iran.The coal plants produce a lot of smog and carbon dioxide, but nobody cares about climate change anymore because the IPCC noticed there’s no point in panicking.
In December 2025, electric heavy-duty trucks outsold diesel trucks, capturing 54% of the monthly market share of new sales. There are now over half a million electric heavy-duty trucks on Chinese roads.

Now that fuel has been taken out of the cost equation in a majority of new heavy trucks sold in China, attention is turning to removing the driver itself
Safety is not a serious issue in China. Totalitarian regimes can ignore keeping the populace happy… until the day the tipping point is reached, and then they’re hanging from lamp poles all over the landscape. On the other hand, with a rapidly aging population, the alternative to driverless trucks is probably no drivers for the trucks, which makes the decision easy.
At the Beijing Autoshow this week, one of these autonomous heavy-duty trucks caught my attention. Built by Chinese company Kargobot, which is a spinoff from global rideshare company Didi, this autonomous truck is not a concept vehicle.

In fact, they have already integrated their autonomous heavy-duty trucks into the commercial supply chain in China, and have already surpassed 35 million kilometres of cumulative L4 driving (L4 being the term used for a vehicle that can drive itself entirely without any human intervention.)

These trucks operate on different types of models depending on the intended use case. For example, the “Kargo One” model uses a hybrid driverless solution, using a “1+N” platoon. One human-driven “pilot” truck leads a convoy of 2 to 6 fully automated L4 trucks.

The idea is that the human lead handles the most complex “long-tail” manoeuvres (like navigating a chaotic toll booth or a messy construction site), while the autonomous followers mimic the lead’s path. Kargobot says this reduces labour costs by up to 80%, and cuts energy consumption by 5-10% due to reduced wind resistance.

The latest cab-less model (like the one on display at the Beijing Autoshow) has no cockpit at all, which improves efficiency due to the lack of AC, seats etc, and increases more cargo. It carries a 1026kWh battery with an estimated range of 800km.
Posted by:Clem+Elmish4239

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Posted by: Abu Uluque   2026-05-09 13:55  

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Posted by: ed in texas   2026-05-09 09:54  

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