Analysis-Soaring electric truck sales deal new blow to diesel use in China

Sam Li and Lewis Jackson

Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 10:19 AM 4 min read

By Sam Li and Lewis Jackson

LANGFANG, China (Reuters) -Electric-powered dense trucks are rapidly gaining marketplace stock successful China, driven by subsidies and the speedy rollout of chargers, further curbing diesel usage and denting lipid request from the world's biggest crude importer.

The roar successful electrical motortruck income successful China follows that of electrical cars and the emergence successful caller years of LNG-powered dense trucks. Those factors, combined with slowing economical growth, person stifled its lipid depletion growth.

Sales successful the world's biggest marketplace for caller vigor trucks are estimated to person risen 175% year-on-year to 76,100 successful the archetypal fractional of this year, oregon astir a 4th of caller motortruck sales, according to consulting steadfast Sublime China Information (SCI). Electric models, inactive mostly utilized for short-haul runs successful ports, mines oregon alloy mills, accounted for implicit 90% of that increase.

The accelerated gait has amazed analysts who person revised down diesel request forecasts arsenic a effect and brought guardant their predictions for a highest successful Chinese lipid demand.

SCI's expert Xu Lei said helium chopped the firm's China diesel request expectations by 1%-2% fixed the roar successful electrical motortruck sales.

"The surge successful electrical dense trucks was a astonishment and has go a caller origin accelerating China’s lipid depletion to peak, astir apt this year," said Ye Lin, vice president astatine Rystad Energy, who had antecedently expected a 2026 peak.

The transport sector, which burns astir two-thirds of each diesel successful China, volition usage 40% little by 2030, cutting wide diesel depletion by astir a 4th compared to 2024 levels, according to Rystad.

Diesel depletion this twelvemonth is forecast to autumn by 11.3 cardinal tons, oregon 6.3%, connected par with past year's drop, according to SCI.

'BEIJING TO YUNNAN'

After much than six years down the instrumentality of a diesel truck, Li Shuai, who drives for a cement works successful Hebei state adjacent Beijing, switched to an electrical motortruck six months ago.

"Charging infrastructure has improved noticeably successful the past fractional year, making things overmuch much convenient,” Li, 38, said. "It is adjacent imaginable to thrust an bare motortruck much than 2,000 km from Beijing to Yunnan to prime up goods without worry."

The accelerated buildup of charging infrastructure, chiefly done concern corridors, is underpinning adoption, though complaint times that tin agelong to 90 minutes and constricted charger availability successful immoderate areas stay issues.

Teld, an EV charging infrastructure supplier that has built much than 2,400 motortruck charging stations crossed China, officially opened an 800 km corridor successful March linking Shanxi and Shandong provinces, a cardinal way done the country’s coal-producing region.