Electric trucks have been making a lot of headlines lately. Elon Musk announced that Tesla Semi trucks will begin delivery to PepsiCo in California. Volvo to deliver electric heavy trucks to Amazon Germany.
But few other markets are experiencing the same level of electrification as China, where electric vehicles have increased their share of light commercial vehicle sales from less than 1 per cent to 10 per cent in just the past two years. Sales hit a record high of nearly 18,000 in August and seem likely to continue climbing in the final months of the year.
A driverless electric truck transports container cargo at Tianjin Port, Aug 22, 2018.
China is one of the world's largest commercial vehicle markets, so what happens in China has global implications, the report said. With 10% EV penetration, China is ahead of almost every other country in this sector.
The penetration curve for light electric vans and trucks in China is starting to look a bit like that for electric vehicles a few years ago. At the time, policy support, the launch of more models and a surge in investment in charging infrastructure helped the market take off.
The Chinese market for electric medium - and heavy-duty trucks is also getting better. Sales of electric medium - and heavy-duty commercial vehicles rose 224 per cent in July to 3.4 per cent of the total market. Deliveries fell slightly in August, to about 2 per cent, but the trend for the year remains strongly positive.
So far, these trucks have mostly run short city trips rather than long ones, but that is changing fast. It is easy to dismiss a few percentage points of market share, but technology adoption tends to be slow.
China is also experimenting with replacing batteries in commercial vehicles. China built 318% more commercial switching stations last year, and it plans to put 34,000 vans and trucks with replaceable batteries into service.