Industry

China's electric truck exports

Why China's electric heavy-truck exports more than doubled in 2026, where they are going, how fuel prices changed the payback for buyers and what it means for fleets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

eTruckWorld Research · Updated 27 October 2026

16,823

electric heavy trucks exported in four months

×2

on the same period a year earlier

50%

went to South and South-East Asia

18 months

payback quoted by SANY, down from 28

The surge

China built its electric-truck industry for its own roads: in 2025 battery-electric trucks took 28% of the country's heavy-truck sales. In 2026 that industry turned outward. In the four months after the war that began on 28 February, China's exports of electric heavy trucks more than doubled from a year earlier to 16,823 vehicles.

Orders have grown with them. In June 2026 SANY shipped the largest single export order of electric heavy trucks ever made from China, some 880 trucks, the first hundred leaving Changsha for assembly and shipment at the port of Guangzhou.

Where they go

Half of the exports went to South and South-East Asia. Shipments to South Asia rose more than fivefold and to South-East Asia nearly threefold. These are markets that depend on imported oil and felt the price shock most: diesel rose 57% in the Philippines and 48% in Sri Lanka, against 15% in China. SANY expects the growth to continue for at least another year, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and is shifting its focus from Europe to South-East Asia with lower-cost models.

Payback

An electric heavy truck costs more to buy than a diesel one and less to run. SANY's international marketing team puts the time a buyer in these markets needs to recoup the difference at 18 months since fuel prices rose, against 28 months before. In Australia, where an electric truck costs about twice its diesel equivalent, operators report operating costs up to 70% lower than diesel even before the war.

Hurdles

The obstacles are the purchase price and charging. Makers are answering both: SANY now sells customers systems to generate and store power as well as charge its trucks, and Chinese makers offer battery-swap trucks and battery leasing, the model that carried swap-capable trucks to about 30% of China's own electric heavy-truck market.

For buyers

For fleets, dealers and importers, the questions are which trucks are built for their loads, roads and climate, how they will charge, and who stands behind them locally. eTruckWorld lists each truck's battery, charging, power and weights in comparable terms, and puts buyers in touch with the makers.

BYD

BYD 6F · 281 – 343 kWh
BYD T4 Electric Mini Truck
BYD 8TT · 422 – 563 kWh
BYD Q3 Electric Tractor · 400 kWh

FAW Jiefang

The surge

Where they go

Payback

Hurdles

For buyers

BYD

FAW Jiefang

Geely Remote (Farizon)

SANY

SHACMAN

Sinotruk

Yutong

Sources