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China’s Electric Truck Moment Has Arrived

Guy Youngs Commercial trucks operate for longer hours, carry heavier loads and burn far more fuel per vehicle than passenger cars but freight diesel is even more important when looking at global diesel demand.
China’s heavy-truck electrification program is targeting 40% new-energy heavy-truck sales by 2030, more than 1.6 million vehicles in operation and roughly 20% of the national heavy-truck fleet. The plan also targets 18% of highway freight volume, which is the more revealing number. China is not merely trying to put electric drivetrains into one-fifth of its trucks. It is concentrating them in commercially active fleets and high-volume freight operations
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$5M Startup Claims Rare Earth-free Electric Motor
Many of the big car manufacturers have tried to make an electric motor that runs without any Rare Earth Elements (REE). REE are critical to so much of our modern world and so much of the electric revolution, and China dominates this market.
So, when a small Indian start up, (called Vimag Labs and based out of Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka), secures its fifth Indian patent for an electric motor that runs without any rare-earth magnets, people start to listen.
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2030: More than a Million Worn Out Batteries
Global EV sales have grown massively in recent years, and this has been boosted further by the war on Iran, which continues to send oil and gas prices soaring. By 2030 over 1 million EV batteries are expected to reach the end of their life. And since this is expected to reach 14 million batteries by 2040, it is one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams.
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CATL Building Battery Swapping Hubs for EV Trucks
A new joint venture between Octopus Energy and CATL, has been created to develop automated battery-swapping hubs for heavy trucks across Europe. Octopus is a UK-founded energy and technology group while CATL is the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery manufacturer.
The joint venture says its first UK hubs will open in 2027, with more than 30 planned across Europe by 2035
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Laos Went 100% EV Overnight Using Drastic Approach
Laos has done something no other country has tried: it has banned the import of new gas and diesel passenger cars outright. Since June 1, nearly every new car cleared for import has to be electric, and the ban runs through the end of the year
Hold on I hear you cry, what about Ethiopia? In 2024 Ethiopia banned the import of all fossil-fueled cars. In truth, there isn’t a lot of difference but in the Laos ban public transport vehicles, construction machinery, project-related trucks, and other specialized vehicles are exempt. This is a passenger-car policy, aimed squarely at the segment where affordable electric alternatives already exist, reports electrek.
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Battery Could Lead To Big Leaps in Performance
Researchers at Dundee and Warwick universities in the UK, have identified the key role oxygen plays in storing and releasing a battery’s energy and this could lead to the development of batteries for electronics and vehicles that charge faster, last longer, and are safer to use
Previously it was thought that oxygen in the battery was “passive”. But the study found that while phosphates showed little oxygen participation, the layered oxides (in the cathodes) showed “significant” electron extraction…
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“Air” Battery Makes Larger Electric Aircraft Possible
The global aviation industry has been struggling to wean itself away from kerosene jet fuel, but there have been some signs that change is on the way. However, this may apply only to much smaller aircraft.
Full sized airplanes represent a significant challenge, which requires a completely new generation of lighter, higher performing (increased energy density) batteries. And, the US startup Air Energy may have a solution: solid State Lithium-Air batteries.
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Few Electrified Ships Can Reshape Shipping Fuels
Maritime transportation accounts for nearly 3% of global energy consumption, around 3% of greenhouse gas emissions and both energy consumption and emissions are expected to further increase over the coming decades. This paints quite a bleak picture, so when a paper is produced that argues that it’s not all doom and gloom, it gets interesting.
The paper argues that not every ship needs to become battery-electric. This goes against the standard anti-eco argument, that states that marine transport is not suitable for electrification. Inland vessels, ferries, coastal ships, offshore support vessels, service craft, port craft and many short-sea routes operate in regular patterns that are much friendlier to electrification.
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Comparing Fossil Fuels Tonnage vs. Fuel Use
When one discusses maritime fuel use and its replacement, the discussion often is about bunker fuel and whether ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, LNG, biofuels, synthetic fuels or batteries can replace it.
Leaving aside the issue of Inland sea vessels, ferries, coastal ships, offshore support vessels, service craft, port craft and whether they can or should be electrified, one of the issues that is not being discussed (until now that is), is what happens to the marine market in terms of cargo capacity and cargo hauled, when fossil fuels are replaced.
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Paving the Way for Lithium–Nitrogen Batteries
Scientists from Belgium’s University of Namur and China’s Wuhan University of Technology have proposed a plan to advance lithium–nitrogen (Li–N₂) batteries. The researchers argue that the development of Li–N₂ batteries is hindered by poor reversibility, limited cycling stability, and sluggish nitrogen activation.
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