The Chinese experiment has proved that electric trucks are more profitable than diesel in mileages of more than 60,000 km per year

The introduction of an autopilot and the transition to electric trustees in the automobile sphere is not limited to passenger transport. These processes in a truck are important for business, as they allow you to reduce expenses in the future. The experiment conducted in China revealed that electric trucks are more profitable than diesel during annual runes of more than 60,000 km, even taking into account their higher initial cost.

Image source: Volvo Trucks

Tesla has long been promoting low operational costs of cargo equipment of its own production, but tries to remain silent for the level of costs for its acquisition. In fact, the large -scale production of Tesla Semi electric trucks has not yet begun, and several hundred machines operated by large customers are more used for experiments, rather than large -scale migration of logistics fleets for electric trolley.

According to the South China Morning Post, conducted from last year in Shenzhen, an experiment with the participation of logistics companies, local authorities and manufacturers of cargo equipment proved that the total cost of owning electric trucks is lower than that of diesel, subject to annual spars of at least 60,000 km. Moreover, the cost of batteries is so rapidly reduced that by the end of last year, electric trucks were 30 % cheaper than in 2023. Even when used on shorter routes, electric trucks in such conditions can justify their acquisition compared to diesel.

Shenzhen can serve as an example of the successful electrification of a commercial fleet. Not only all buses and taxis in this metropolis in southern China, but also 87 % of garbage trucks, from 24 to 30 % of dump trucks and vans, have already been transferred to electric troughs. In total, about 1 million electric vehicles are operated in the city, about 13 % of this amount of trucks and light vans are in trucks.

The program of testing electric trucks in Shenzhen took part in 38 models of eight different manufacturers, data collection fed according to 142 parameters. The results of the experiment allowed to extrapolate the information received to understand what benefit the transition to the use of electric freight transport promises within a five -year service life. As already noted, the experiment made it possible to find out that with annual runes of more than 60,000 km, electric trucks are more profitable than diesel, even taking into account a higher initial cost.

However, as the authors of the experiment noted, an unpleasant pattern was also revealed. The weak development of charger infrastructure at this stage forces drivers to overcome long distances for charging trucks. For example, at a distance of 100 km, the driver of an electric truck sometimes has to make a “hook” of 10 km in order to replenish the charge of the traction battery.

Fuel manufacturers also offer intermediate solutions that allow us to operate diesel equipment with less harm to the environment. Diesel fuel has already learned to make some types of industrial waste, it reduces 15.4 % emissions compared to the classic. In addition, trucks can work on processing products used in cooking vegetable oil.