PUBLISHER: ResearchInChina | PRODUCT CODE: 2168686
PUBLISHER: ResearchInChina | PRODUCT CODE: 2168686
Research on 800V Architecture of Commercial Vehicles: New Energy Penetration Rate Exceeds 35%, and 800V Full-Domain High-Voltage Architecture Rapidly Penetrates Heavy-Duty Trucks
Explosive Growth in New Energy Commercial Vehicle Sales and Accelerated Mass Production of 800V Architectures
With the rapid development of the global new energy vehicle industry, the commercial vehicle sector is undergoing profound electrification transformation. China put forward the strategic goals of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" at the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, further accelerating the electrification of commercial vehicles. The technical roadmap for new energy commercial vehicles in China has gradually taken shape, with battery-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles becoming the mainstream development directions.
Chinese new energy commercial vehicles have witnessed explosive growth starting from 2024. Sales reached 579,000 units in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 63.4%. Cumulative sales hit 871,000 units in 2025, rising 50.4% year-on-year. In 2026, China's domestic new energy commercial-vehicle market is at a critical stage of transition from policy-driven to market-driven growth. Registered sales for January-June 2026 stood at 520,000 units, with a cumulative growth rate of 45%. Full-year sales are projected to reach 1.12 million units, and the domestic market penetration rate is expected to surpass 35%. In 2026, CNY22billion of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds will be allocated to support the scrapping and replacement of old commercial freight vehicles, giving priority to new energy heavy-duty truck replacements. Subsidies for selected models can reach as high as CNY140,000 per vehicle.
Meanwhile, conventional voltage platform design modes for new energy commercial vehicles can no longer satisfy demand for high efficiency and low cost, calling for technical innovation. Especially under special operating conditions featuring high voltage and high air pressure, commercial vehicle electrical systems face more complex technical challenges. This drives voltage platform evolution from traditional "segmented adaptation" toward "full-domain high voltage" to match development requirements for new energy commercial vehicles.
Conventional voltage platforms: Light-duty trucks for urban distribution with low power requirements mostly adopt 400V low-voltage platforms. Heavy-duty trucks for long-haul transportation and engineering operations with large loads and complex operating conditions mostly use 600V platforms. Buses operating on fixed routes generally deploy dedicated 540V platforms.
Driven by the maturity of silicon carbide (SiC) power devices and rising electrification penetration for commercial vehicles (28.1% domestic penetration in 2025), the 800V full-domain high-voltage platform will become the mainstream industry choice.
To meet fast-charging rigid requirements for heavy-duty trucks and large buses equipped with large-capacity batteries (commonly exceeding 300kWh), the industry is breaking through toward 1000V-and-above kilovolt-class high-voltage platforms.
Voltage ratings for main-drive-grade SiC power chips used in battery-electric heavy-duty trucks keep increasing, evolving from early-generation 650V / 750V to above 1200V, and have been adopted by multiple traditional and new energy vehicle OEMs. Given the technical characteristics of extra-large-capacity battery packs in the commercial vehicle sector, accelerated iteration toward higher-voltage platforms and power chips is taking the lead. Sany Group's electric heavy-duty truck Mota 1165 adopts 1700V, 17mΩ SiC MOSFET chips.
Development Trends for High-Voltage Heavy-Duty Truck Electric Drive Systems: E-Axle + Multi-in-One Domain Controller Integration + Hairpin Oil-Cooled Motors
Commercial vehicle e-axles are evolving from discrete configurations toward deep integration. The 800V high-voltage platform is becoming standard hardware to resolve range anxiety and energy efficiency anxiety pain points. Tesla addresses such pain points via megawatt-level fast charging, while Mercedes-Benz and Volvo adopt deep integration to cut energy consumption and boost range per unit of electricity.
Compared with passenger cars, commercial vehicles attach greater importance to high torque, high reliability and full-operating-condition efficiency, adapting to heavy-load startup, sustained hill climbing and harsh environment scenarios. Two main routes of integration exist for commercial vehicles: e-axles (electromechanical coupling) and multi-in-one controllers / power-domain controllers (electronic-control integration). The combination of e-axles and multi-in-one domain controllers represents the core development trend for electric-drive systems on high-voltage heavy-duty trucks. These two technical routes are not isolated; they complement each other and jointly constitute the powertrain foundation for next-generation new-energy heavy-duty-truck chassis.
Electromechanical coupling: Motor+Reducer+Axle -> E-Axle. E-axles eliminate propeller shafts and differentials, delivering approximately 20% weight reduction and 5%-8% efficiency gain.
Electronic-control & power-electronics integration: MCU / DCDC / OBC / PDU / air-pump & oil-pump controllers / vehicle control -> Multi-in-one Controller / Power-Domain Controller. Taking buses as an example, motor + electronic-control + DCDC + OBC+ PDU five-in-one integration brings 30% volume reduction and 15%-20% cost reduction.
Development Trends for High-Voltage Heavy-Duty Trucks Batteries and Ultra-Charging Systems: Extra-Large-Capacity Batteries + Megawatt-Level Ultra-Charging
Installed power-battery capacity for commercial vehicles is undergoing explosive growth, driven mainly by accelerating penetration of high-power, large-battery-pack scenarios such as electric heavy-duty trucks. In 2025, installed power-battery capacity for China's new-energy commercial vehicles reached 162GWh, up 140.9% year-on-year. The figure hit 86.1GWh in H12026.
From 2022 to 2026, installed power-battery capacity for China's new energy commercial vehicles maintained rapid high-speed growth with an extremely high CAGR. The 2026 full-year projection stands at 216.1GWh, representing 33.3% year-on-year growth -- more than three times the growth rate for passenger cars (10.8%). Commercial vehicle electrification acts as a core growth driver for the power-battery industry, fueled by green-freight-transport transition and electrification of sanitation and heavy-duty trucks. Battery capacity per heavy-duty truck has exceeded 400kWh. Total battery capacity for heavy-duty trucks in 2026 is estimated at 131.2GWh (+31.9% YoY). Application scenarios are expanding from fixed short-haul operations in ports and mines toward 500-1000km medium-and-long-haul trunk-line logistics.
Extra-large-capacity batteries impose higher requirements for fast-charging performance. Commercial vehicle charging presents a three-tier landscape: dual-gun charging as current mainstream, multigun charging as supplementary option, and singlegun megawatt charging as the ultimate long-term direction. Multi-gun parallel charging is essentially an expediency for power multiplication under existing interface standards. With the roll-out of the MCS megawatt-charging standard and popularization of kilovolt-class high-voltage platforms, "single-gun megawatt charging" will eventually replace "multi-gun parallel charging" and become the definitive energy-replenishment form for commercial vehicles.
The MIIT "2025 Key Points for Automotive Standardization Work* for the first time incorporates cutting-edge fields including megawatt-level charging for commercial vehicles, artificial intelligence and solid-state batteries into key deployment plans. The MIIT mandates pre-research on national-recommended-standard specifications for commercial vehicle megawatt-level DC charging systems, defining technical requirements for charging interfaces, flow-guidance, cooling, communication and compatibility for 1MW- and-above rated-power charging to support high-speed energy replenishment for heavy-duty trucks, buses and special-purpose vehicles.
Regarding megawatt-charging standards for commercial vehicles, China released GB/T-series high-power-charging standards back in 2023 (e.g. GB/T20234.4-2023 "DC Charging Couplers -Part4: High-Power Charging Interfaces"), adopting new "ultra-charging" interfaces compatible with CHAdeMO supporting maximum 1.2MW charging capacity. To date, no unified complete megawatt-charging standard system exists for China's commercial-vehicle energy-replenishment sector.