Thursday, 9 July 2026

Zijin Mining produced its first proprietary battery-electric mining dump truck, the LK220E, which rolled off the production line by the end of 2025, according to electrive.

The company now operates nearly 300 battery-electric dump trucks, electrive reported. Depending on configuration, the vehicles weigh up to 140 tonnes and use swappable batteries with a capacity of 776 kWh.

Zijin stated the trucks achieved an availability rate of over 90 percent and cut energy consumption by more than 17 percent compared to similar models, according to electrive.

At the Xinjiang-Zijin zinc mine, more than 290 battery-electric mining trucks from various manufacturers are in operation, including vehicles from Lingong Heavy Machinery, electrive reported. Those trucks handle over 80 percent of the mine's transport volume.

The mine runs an automated battery-swapping system that uses artificial intelligence to perform over 180 battery swaps per day, according to electrive. A swap on the roughly 90-tonne vehicles takes around four minutes.

Two Bangladeshi automakers have committed to local electric vehicle assembly following new government incentives, with Runner Automobiles planning phased investments of 2.6 billion taka to develop a 'made-in-Bangladesh' EV in partnership with BYD, according to electrive.

Runner Automobiles CFO Shanat Datta said the company plans to begin EV assembly by the middle of 2027, following the government incentives, electrive reported.

Rancon Motors has confirmed plans to invest 3 billion taka in EV assembly, according to electrive.

The moves come as Bangladesh targets a 30% EV market share by 2030, electrive reported.

Charging infrastructure remains thin. Bangladesh currently has only 32 public charging stations, according to electrive.

Zenobe has secured a AUD 400 million financing facility to fund the deployment of electric commercial vehicles across Australia and New Zealand, according to electrive.

The company describes the facility as the region's first integrated, multi-site heavy vehicle fleet electrification financing platform.

The platform will launch with four operational seed projects, according to electrive. These include electric fleet depots in Leichhardt in Australia, and in Dunedin, West Auckland, and Greater Wellington in New Zealand.

Gareth Ridge is Country Director, Australia and New Zealand at Zenobe.

Ford's first vehicle built on its new Universal Electric Vehicle platform is a four-door midsize electric pickup that will start at around $30,000, according to Electrek.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company found efficiency gains of 20-30% on the program, but had to recruit people from motorsport to achieve them, Electrek reported. The starting price of about $30,000 anchors the pickup at the entry end of the segment.

The carmaker plans to use gigacasting, which it calls "unicastings," to cut the part count on the upcoming pickup, Electrek reported. Ford will reduce the number of parts from 146 in the current Maverick to just two for the new vehicle.

For the batteries, Ford is using prismatic lithium iron phosphate cells built in the US, according to Electrek. The cells rely on licensed technology from China's CATL.

The platform launch lands against a shift in European registration figures. BYD registered more than 26,000 vehicles in Europe last month, up 158% from May 2025, according to ACEA data cited by Electrek. Over the same stretch, Ford registered 18,105 vehicles in Europe in May, down 32% from a year earlier.

China shipped a record $9.2 billion worth of electric vehicles overseas in May, up 49% year over year and just ahead of the previous monthly record of $9.1 billion set in April, according to Ember data.

Exports totaled around 448,000 electric passenger vehicles for the month, split between roughly 279,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and about 169,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Ember reported.

Shipments to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries reached a record $1.2 billion in May as governments across the region push to electrify transportation, according to the same data.

Thailand led regional demand, importing more than 36,000 Chinese EVs during the month, while shipments to the Philippines topped 33,000 vehicles, per Ember.

Policy moves across the region have widened the market. Cambodia cut customs duties on BEVs to zero in late March and reduced tariffs on PHEVs from 35% to 7%.

Laos now requires transportation companies to have EVs make up at least 10% of their fleets by the end of 2026, and in May the country temporarily banned imports of internal combustion engine cars through the end of the year as it works to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.

BasiGo has added 18 intercity buses to its electric fleet in Rwanda, according to electrive. The delivery brings BasiGo Rwanda's battery-electric fleet to 52 vehicles, electrive reported, citing bus-news.com.

The locally assembled i8 intercity buses run on CATL battery packs and offer a range of up to 350 kilometres, according to electrive. The new vehicles will serve routes linking Kigali with Musanze, Rubavu, Huye, Rusizi and Nyagatare.

BasiGo aims to deploy a total of 1,000 battery-electric buses in East Africa by 2027, electrive reported. Last year, CATL appointed BasiGo as an authorised service partner for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sales of new electric vehicles dropped sharply last fall after federal tax credits for EVs ended, according to Canary Media.

Canary Media reported that a nationwide buildout of EV chargers has been slow to get rolling.

Field data from a large-scale review of UK heat pump installations diverges from modeled performance, pv magazine reported.

To explain how installers can lift seasonal performance factor (SPF) ratings, pv magazine put questions to Jan Rosenow of Oxford University and Trystan Lea of Heat Pump Monitor.

Any UK heat pump seeking grant support under the government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme has to be fitted by an MCS Certified installer, according to pv magazine.

Two locally built battery-electric articulated buses are due to enter service with the Transperth fleet in Western Australia, according to electrive. Volvo Buses describes the vehicle as Australia's first locally built battery-electric articulated bus.

The model runs on Volvo's low-floor BZL Electric articulated chassis, with bodywork by Australian manufacturer Volgren at its Malaga facility near Perth, electrive reported. Mark Fryer, Director, Product & Industry at Volvo Buses Asia Pacific, said the vehicle is "a genuine 'Australia first'" and was built in Perth.

Each bus stretches 18 metres and seats 57 passengers, with room for about 105 people once standing riders are counted, according to electrive. Power comes from Volvo's dual-motor EPT802 driveline, pairing two 200 kW motors, while twelve LFP battery packs supply a combined installed capacity of 497 kWh. Charging uses the CCS2 standard, with a recharge time of around four hours.

Across the Transperth network, more than 150 battery-electric buses now operate, and roughly eleven more join each month, electrive reported. A A$250 million programme, funded jointly by the Australian and Western Australian governments, underpins the shift, delivering an initial fleet of 130 electric buses along with charging infrastructure and depot upgrades.

Zero-emission truck (ZET) deployments in the United States climbed 37% year-over-year in 2025, according to CALSTART's Zeroing in on Zero-Emission Trucks report. Cumulative deployments reached 72,309 nationwide by the close of the year, up from 52,787 at the end of 2024.

Of the 2025 total, 12,996 units were deployed in the second half, CALSTART reported. ZETs accounted for 4.14% of all new truck deployments in that period, according to the report.

That share set a record. It surpassed the previous high of 3.13%, which CALSTART said was reached in the first six months of 2023.

The gains came against a shrinking overall market. Total US truck sales in the second half of 2025 fell 35% year-over-year to 314,067, according to CALSTART.

The report cited the arrival of the Tesla Semi as a factor, entering the market at $290,000 for a 500-mile tractor.