<
https://thedriven.io/2026/04/25/electric-trucks-in-china-have-already-ditched-diesel-now-theyre-ditching-the-driver/>
"Electric trucks recently found the spotlight in Australia during the current
fuel crisis, with the long overdue conversation on how we start building the
necessary infrastructure to electrify our heavy trucks finally taking place.
Overdue is a mild term, considering Australia is only second to the US in its
reliance on road freight. As former
The Driven lead writer and now New Energy
Transport co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Bleakley said on a recent episode of
The Driven Podcast – “if Australia’s trucks stop, Australia starves”.
In China, the conversation has already moved on from whether to electrify their
trucking fleet. In December 2025, electric heavy-duty trucks outsold diesel
trucks, capturing 54% of the monthly market share of new sales. There are now
over half a million electric heavy-duty trucks on Chinese roads.
Now that fuel has been taken out of the cost equation in a majority of new
heavy trucks sold in China, attention is turning to removing the driver itself
At the Beijing Autoshow this week, one of these autonomous heavy-duty trucks
caught my attention. Built by Chinese company Kargobot, which is a spinoff from
global rideshare company Didi, this autonomous truck is not a concept vehicle.
In fact, they have already integrated their autonomous heavy-duty trucks into
the commercial supply chain in China, and have already surpassed 35 million
kilometres of cumulative L4 driving (L4 being the term used for a vehicle that
can drive itself entirely without any human intervention.)
These trucks operate on different types of models depending on the intended use
case. For example, the “Kargo One” model uses a hybrid driverless solution,
using a “1+N” platoon. One human-driven “pilot” truck leads a convoy of 2 to 6
fully automated L4 trucks."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
