(Beijing = Yonhap News) Correspondent Jeong Seong-jo = The technical director of China's Ningdersdai (CATL), the world's largest battery manufacturer, predicted that the sales proportion of new energy vehicles (electric, hydrogen, and hybrid vehicles) in large trucks will reach 50% by 2028.
According to Chinese economic media outlet Caixin on the 5th, CATL chief scientist Wu Kai, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made this statement at the World Power Battery Conference held the previous day.
Professor Ukai said that, just as in the development process of passenger cars, trucks will also rise rapidly once the penetration rate of new energy (the proportion of new energy vehicle sales out of total sales) passes a critical point, and pointed out that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in large trucks has reached 10% in 2024 and has already entered a full-fledged development stage.
Eleven ministries, including China's Ministry of Transportation, announced the 'Implementation Plan for Scaling Application of New Energy Large Trucks' in May this year. This plan sets a goal of increasing the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and large trucks by 40% by 2030, increasing the fleet's ownership to 1.6 million units, and increasing the proportion of new energy vehicles to around 20% of the total fleet.
This year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles for large trucks in China is showing a clear upward trend.
According to the final sales data (excluding exports) announced by the First Commercial Vehicle Network, sales of new energy large trucks totaled 166,500 units from January to July of this year, an increase of 74% compared to the same period last year, and the penetration rate was 35.3%. Looking at July alone, the penetration rate reached an all-time high of 47.3%.
Caixin cited the continued implementation of measures to promote the replacement of old products with new ones for commercial trucks this year, and the fact that the economic feasibility of electric large trucks was highlighted as oil and natural gas prices rose due to the war in the Middle East as factors contributing to the increase in sales.
In the past, electric large trucks had the disadvantage of being 50% more expensive than internal combustion engine trucks and charging times taking more than an hour, but Professor Ukai emphasized that these problems are gradually being solved with the development of battery technology.
CATL's newly released large truck battery provides a 15-year, or 2.4 million km, quality guarantee, and it is explained that the time required has been reduced to 5 minutes by adopting a replacement method rather than battery charging. It was also pointed out that the cost per km of electric large trucks is 0.6 yuan (about 120 won) cheaper than that of internal combustion engine trucks, so if they drive 100,000 km per year, they can save 60,000 yuan (about 12 million won).
CATL maintains the No. 1 market share in the commercial vehicle sector in China. From January to July of this year, CATL commercial vehicle battery capacity was 46.2GWh (gigawatt hours), with a market share of 43.4%. Large trucks are one of the battery use fields that CATL has pioneered.
Professor Ukai said, โBatteries are the technological foundation that supports the electrification of various areas such as electric ships and flying cars, and the recently popular physical AI is also impossible without batteries,โ and suggested, โThe battery industry should seek to establish a common standard that transcends fields.โ
