China sells 33,100 electric heavy trucks in September for a 50.3% share, Europe sits at just 2.7%

EVwire brief: China's electric heavy trucks outsold diesel, LNG and every other powertrain combined in September, with 33,100 new-energy units taking 50.3% of the domestic market.

That's a 37% jump from a year earlier and 23% more than August, according to insurance-registration data compiled by Chinese commercial vehicle outlet Yunshuren. Electric sales grew despite a roughly 21% year-over-year drop in China's overall heavy-truck market, with electric tractors, the rigs that pull long-haul trailers, faring even better at 25,600 units for a 64.5% share of their segment.

This means that China has already sold 226,400 electric heavy trucks in the first nine months of 2026, up 64% year-over-year and just 4,700 units shy of its entire 2025 total. The year-to-date share stands at 38.1%.

The shift is also showing up in China's fuel demand, with energy analytics firm Kpler expecting diesel consumption to drop by about 230,000 barrels per day this year. Europe, for its part, sits at a 2.7% share, with 6,470 electric heavy trucks registered across the EU, EFTA and the UK from January to September.

Here's how September 2026 compares with September 2025, with the overall market shrinking even as electric sales climbed:

Sinotruk has taken the lead in China's electric heavy-truck race this year, with 36,600 units sold from January to September for a 16.2% share. That's up 139% from the same period last year, the fastest growth among the segment's top seven brands.

XCMG, last year's leader with 35,400 units, sits just 700 units behind at 35,900. SANY and FAW Jiefang round out the top four with 31,400 and 29,000 units, respectively, while FAW Jiefang topped September's electric tractor sales with 4,607 units.

Here's how China's top electric heavy-truck makers stack up so far this year:

China's electric heavy-truck share has climbed fast. New-energy models accounted for just 13.6% of heavy-truck sales in 2024, before 2025 sales jumped 182% to 231,100 units for a 28.9% share, as per our electric truck market share report.

The climb hasn't been a straight line, though. The share spiked to 53.9% in December 2025 as buyers rushed ahead of incentive changes, then slid back to about 23% in March, according to Kpler. It has since stayed above 40% for five straight months, with September pushing past the 50% mark.

That's well ahead of what Beijing has asked for. In June, 11 government departments, including the Ministry of Transport, the NDRC and the MIIT, set a 40% new-energy target for heavy trucks by 2030. The same plan calls for more than 1.6 million new-energy heavy trucks on the road, 30,000 km (18,640 miles) of zero-carbon freight corridors and about 3,000 heavy-truck charging and swap stations.

Here's how the share has moved from period to period, with the 2030 target marked for reference:

CATL is building the infrastructure to keep that momentum going. At an event on October 20, the battery giant said its Qiji swap network is targeting about 900 heavy-truck stations by the end of 2026 and 2,000 in 2027, with 10,000 stations as its long-term goal. Qiji's standardized packs come in 432 kWh and 513 kWh versions, with each capable of being swapped in about five minutes.

CATL has also been growing its footprint through acquisitions, paying 2.56 billion yuan (about $370 million) in August for a 24.87% stake in Qiyuan Green Power. The State Power Investment Corporation unit runs about 1,600 charging and swap stations across China.

Wang Jingzhu, executive president of CATL's heavy-industry business unit, declared at the October 20 event that the debate is settled:

CATL chairman Robin Zeng had predicted in 2025 that electric heavy trucks would pass half of China's sales within three years. September's 50.3% got there well ahead of that timeline.

The economics are a big part of the story. An ICCT meta-analysis of Chinese freight use cases found that battery-electric trucks typically deliver total cost of ownership savings of up to 20% per kilometer compared with diesel, with most fleets earning back the higher upfront price within four years. The ICCT also flagged payload lost to heavy battery packs, upfront costs and charging and swapping gaps as the remaining hurdles.

Electric trucks aren't just replacing diesel rigs in China. They're also pushing out LNG trucks, which had been the country's go-to diesel alternative. Kpler data shows LNG trucks took about 37% of heavy-duty registrations in March, with electric models at 23%. By July, the order had flipped, with electric at about 47% and LNG down to about 11%. Monthly LNG truck registrations fell from more than 30,000 to about 6,200 over the same stretch.

Kpler estimates that China's diesel demand dropped about 420,000 barrels per day year-over-year in May, roughly 10%, and about 460,000 barrels per day in June. The firm expects a full-year decline of about 230,000 barrels per day, followed by a modest 64,000-barrel-per-day rebound in 2027. LNG and electric trucks together are displacing close to 680,000 barrels per day this year, with about 230,000 of that coming from electric trucks.

Kpler noted that the US-Iran war also played a role, pushing Chinese diesel prices about 35% above their January average by May. Road freight turnover still grew about 3% year-over-year from January to July, however, and electric trucks are expected to make up only about 8% of China's operating heavy-truck fleet by the end of 2026. This means that most of China's heavy trucks on the road still run on diesel or LNG, even as new sales tilt electric.

China's diesel decline also predates this year's surge. Rhodium Group found that the country's diesel refinery runs peaked in April 2023, with apparent consumption falling from 4.7 million barrels per day then to 4.0 million barrels per day by April 2025.

Europe's electric heavy-truck market is growing, just from a far smaller base. ACEA data shows 6,470 electrically chargeable trucks over 16 tonnes (35,300 lb) were registered across the EU, EFTA and the UK from January to September, up 55.7% year-over-year for a 2.7% share. Diesel still accounted for 94.0% of the region's heavy-truck registrations.

Switzerland leads the region at 24.2%, followed by Norway at 14.4%, the Netherlands at 11.1% and Sweden at 10.3%. Germany registered the most electric heavy trucks at 1,722 units, though that works out to only a 4.2% share, while the UK sits at 1.1%.

Here's how Europe's leading markets stack up against China's year-to-date share. For a baseline comparison, ICCT data puts zero-emission trucks at about 0.3% of US heavy-duty sales in 2025, with 875 units sold.

Context:

China's lead lines up with the findings of Strategy&'s Truck Study 2026, which we covered in October. The consultancy estimated that China built 95% of the world's battery-electric trucks in 2025, with its ramp-up running 150% ahead of Strategy&'s earlier forecast, while Europe's growth came in 80% short of projections. Strategy& pointed to charging infrastructure and fleet confidence, not cost, as the main things holding Europe back.

China's playbook is already making its way overseas. CATL is working with Octopus Energy on a truck battery-swap network in Europe, starting in the UK, and BYD brought its ETT 44 electric tractor to IAA Transportation 2026. In the US, procurement alliance ZET SCALE named Tesla the primary OEM for a 2,500-truck electric Class 8 order, though upfront cost remains a hurdle there.

Source: Yunshuren, CV World, Kpler, ACEA, ICCT, Rhodium Group

DIG DEEPER: For more electric truck coverage, check out our eTruckwire. If you have not already, join 14,700+ EV geeks getting our newsletter: subscribe.