The electric truck market may be the next frontier in Europe’s transition to green vehicles, but Chinese manufacturers are once again at the forefront of the shift.
Windrose Technology is the latest to gain a toehold in Europe, having received permission to build an e-truck assembly plant at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium. Another Chinese manufacturer, SuperPanther, expects to assemble up to 200 e-trucks at a site of partner Steyr Automotive in Austria this summer.
But both companies are latecomers. BYD’s Komarom plant in Hungary, originally designed for electric buses, has been expanded to enable the production of e-trucks, with an aim of manufacturing more than 1,000 of both types of vehicles annually.
Sany Group saw the potential in Europe even earlier. In 2012, China’s largest maker of heavy-duty vehicles bought Putzmeister, a German manufacturer focused on making concrete mixer trucks.
Sany, which has units listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, has moved now into the broader electric logistics segment. Its new electric tractor units are aimed at the construction and logistics industries, which can be attached to curtainside trailers and containers.
Kevin Eichele, head of product and business development at Sany eTrucks Europe, told Nikkei Asia that the company sold more than 21,000 electric six-by-four tractor units in China last year. The broad manufacturing base enables the company to sell more cheaply, thanks to economies of scale.
“While electric trucks used to cost three times as much as diesel trucks, today, they cost more like only 1.5 to two times as much, and Sany aims to be priced approximately 20% below European e-truck manufacturers,” he said.
The logistics industry is under pressure to transition to zero-emission vehicles, driven by the European Union’s ambitious decarbonization legislation around heavy-duty vehicles. The EU aims to cut heavy-duty vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030, 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2040, from the 2019 baseline.
Yet e-trucks still have only a minuscule market presence. Those weighing above 3.5 metric tons made up just 4.2% of the market in 2025, up from 2.3% the previous year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
The main drivers of this trend were the Netherlands, along with Germany and France, which together accounted for two-thirds of the EU’s e-truck market. By comparison, e-trucks are already 20% to 25% of China’s domestic heavy-duty segment.
“Europe has a decades-long legacy of innovation and leadership in commercial vehicles,” said Thomas Fabian, ACEA’s chief commercial vehicles officer.
“Today it lacks robust domestic battery manufacturing, making it dependent on a few foreign suppliers, and insufficient speed in rolling out the enabling conditions prevents us from scaling,” he said.
These “enabling conditions” allow China to build up this market quickly. For Europe, the lack of an ecosystem, including sufficient charging stations and grid capacity to electrify large fleets, is hampering the sector’s growth. On top of this, the trucks would also require dedicated charging parks so as not to block other vehicles.
Ewa Root, research and analysis director at automotive intelligence provider S&P Global Mobility, said she did not expect rapid growth in Chinese e-truck sales in the EU in the short to medium term, citing high battery costs and technological limitations such as range and charging time as stumbling blocks.
“Fleets will require substantial policy support to achieve total-cost-of-ownership parity with diesel trucks by the end of the decade,” Root said.
Furthermore, European customers are generally loyal to local brands, so it could take time for Chinese manufacturers to build trust in their vehicles’ reliability and long-term performance. New entrants will also need to establish strong after-sales and service networks across the region.
“Leasing companies are cautious about the resale values of new brands, which can negatively affect total cost of ownership, which is one of the key purchasing factors,” Root said.
Some of these factors have been taken into account by Sany. Eichele said that Sany’s e-trucks run on clearly defined routes, such as warehouse to warehouse and port to warehouse, rather than long-haul transport.
In addition, Sany’s after-sales service is covered by Alltrucks, a joint venture between German companies Bosch and Knorr-Bremse that has more than 650 repair shops across Europe. Eichele said 95% of spare parts are available in Sany’s warehouse near Frankfurt. Alltrucks will also be the European service partner of SuperPanther, which is expecting its first e-trucks to be delivered before the end of the year.
Another factor that could boost the uptake of e-trucks, at least in Germany, is the government’s extension of toll exemptions for such vehicles until 2031.
“In Germany, the toll exemption saves approximately 35 cents per kilometer,” Eichele said. “This results in significantly lower operating costs within two years.”
Seeing where the market is heading, Germany’s powerful IG Metall union and workers’ groups at German truck makers Daimler Truck and Iveco Magirus warned of the loss of orders and jobs at both truck manufacturers and their suppliers.
Barbara Resch, IG Metall’s district manager for Baden-Wuerttemberg, called for political action to ensure fair competition. “We cannot allow the truck sector to experience what we are seeing in the passenger car sector,” she said in a news release.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.