Just after the Spring Festival holiday, a reporter from Shanghai Securities News walked into the SANY Intelligent Heavy-Duty Truck Industrial Park in Changsha, Hunan, where there was already a lively scene of rushing to produce and prepare for stocking. "It has become a consensus that the industry will grow rapidly in 2025. We are rushing to prepare for the peak season of the new energy heavy-duty truck industry from March to May." Hu Penghui, supervisor of the HSE Management Department of SANY Commercial Vehicle Manufacturing Company, is full of confidence.

In 2024, my country's new energy heavy-duty truck industry has made rapid progress and sales have grown rapidly: the monthly sales in December set a record of 15,200 vehicles, and the annual sales reached 82,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 140%; the annual market penetration rate increased to 13.61%, and the monthly penetration rate in December was as high as 21.89%. In January this year, the off-season of the new energy heavy-duty truck industry was not dull, and sales have achieved a significant year-on-year increase for 24 consecutive months.

In 2022, SANY Heavy Truck will start using the Zhilian Heavy Truck Industrial Park with an investment of over 22 billion yuan. The workshop has fully realized 5G communication, and the information efficiency is 10 times higher than that of traditional factories. Under full load operation, a truck can be rolled off the production line every 4 minutes. It is one of the most automated and largest (300,000 units/year) modern heavy truck factories in the world.

At present, new energy heavy trucks are mainly rechargeable heavy trucks, and the actual cruising range is mostly 300 kilometers or less. The main usage scenarios are mines, steel mills, ports, intercity logistics, etc. With the introduction and popularization of new energy heavy trucks with longer cruising range, the industry is expected to usher in a leapfrog development.

Xiang Wenbo, chairman of SANY Group, introduced that the transportation industry is one of the important industries of carbon emissions. my country is at the forefront of the world in low-carbon emission reduction and electrification of passenger cars, but the low-carbonization of commercial vehicles is also worthy of attention. According to statistics, the number of commercial vehicles in use only accounts for 12% of the total number of cars in use, and their carbon emissions account for as high as 55.4%.

Data from the First Commercial Vehicle Network shows that from September to December 2024, the new energy heavy-duty truck market has the highest sales volume in history, with an average monthly sales volume of 10,300 units. Including the previous peak season from March to August 2024, the new energy heavy-duty truck industry is in its first "heyday".

Luo Changguo believes that three factors continue to drive the high growth of new energy heavy-duty truck sales: First, the electrification of passenger cars is ahead, which has cultivated customer awareness and the integrity of the industrial chain; second, new energy heavy-duty trucks themselves have shown significant operating profit advantages. The freight cost of about 1 yuan/kilometer has formed a "dimensionality reduction attack" compared with the freight cost of about 3 yuan/kilometer for fuel heavy-duty trucks; third, the large-scale production and cost reduction of batteries have led to the continuous decline in the price of new energy heavy-duty trucks. Taking the 423-kWh product that is the main sales in the market as an example, it has further dropped from 700,000 yuan in 2023, and the downstream acceptance has further increased.

Beidou data shows that in 2024, SANY heavy-duty trucks will be 11,779 units, a year-on-year increase of 177.4%, with a market share of 17.6%.

"New energy heavy trucks are a track with 'long slopes, wide roads and thick snow'. SANY Group is fully implementing a global, digital and low-carbon transformation strategy, and is committed to becoming a leading company in the low-carbon and electrification fields. It will also enable the whole society to achieve low-carbonization through the development of wind, solar, hydrogen and storage new energy industries." Luo Changguo said.