From Reuters via MSN, March 9:
Chinese electric freight trucks are rolling into Europe at pace this year, following the trail blazed by Chinese EVs and threatening to upend the market with better technology and lower prices.
Reuters has identified more than half a dozen Chinese manufacturers planning to launch European heavy truck sales in 2026. They include EV giant BYD; Geely Holding unit Farizon; China's top-selling electric truck brand Sany; Sinotruk; and startups Windrose and SuperPanther.
Founded in 2022, Windrose will build trucks in Europe and is exploring U.S. production with Xos, which makes delivery trucks for UPS and FedEx. That would put it in direct competition with Tesla's Semi big rig, which CEO Elon Musk recently said will start mass production this year, nine years after its 2017 unveiling.
In Europe, the new arrivals aim to price their trucks up to 30% below the European average price of 320,000 euros ($380,000), managers at Chinese and European truckmakers told Reuters. Their cost advantages rely on their greater scale in China, where zero-emission heavy-duty trucks account for 29% of sales, as well as China's lower-cost electric vehicle and battery supply chain.
Electric freight trucks made up 4.2% of overall truck sales in the EU in 2025, up from 2.3% in 2024. Their growth has been slowed by prices that are about triple the 100,000-euro average for a diesel truck, according to industry experts.
Europe's truck-fleet owners are loyal to trusted brands, one advantage for European truck brands including Daimler Trucks, Volvo Group, Iveco, and Volkswagen unit Traton, which owns the MAN and Scania brands. These incumbents dominate Europe's market and control large portions of the global market outside China.
But fleet owners are also cost-conscious, raising fears among legacy truck makers that the influx of lower-priced Chinese rivals could quickly build electric-truck market share.
"We have one or two years to get ahead of this," says Chris Heron, secretary general of trade association E-Mobility Europe. "Or the Chinese will eat our lunch."
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