Half of all heavy trucks sold in China could be electric by 2028, up from just 10% in 2024, the chairman of CATL, Robin Zeng Yuqun, said on Sunday, according to Jiemian, a news site affiliated with the Shanghai government.
Zeng made the comments during the launch of a battery-swapping initiative for heavy trucks, underscoring a potential acceleration in the electrification of China’s freight sector and adding pressure on traditional fuel demand, already declining due to the growing adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks.
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The remarks coincided with CATL’s announcement that it has begun operations at a 60 GWh energy storage and EV battery manufacturing base in Shandong—the company’s first production site in northern China. According to a WeChat post from CATL, the facility marks the initial phase of a larger project that will expand over the next two years into an energy industry cluster worth billions of yuan.
Local government targets show Shandong province aims to build a 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) lithium battery industry by the end of 2024, encompassing the entire battery supply chain, from electrode materials and electrolytes to cell production and assembly.
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The outlook from CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, suggests China’s heavy trucking sector could undergo a rapid transformation, aided by battery-swapping technologies and government support for clean transport infrastructure.