While the progress of SANY and XCMG with the supply of battery wide body mining trucks has been well publicised recently, both for Chinese customers but also export customers like Vale and CSN in Brazil, Yutong in Zhengzhou, Henan Province is an increasingly important player. The group told IM that it has trials ongoing with its battery trucks in Thailand, Chile, Indonesia and Kazakhstan, plus estimates its share of the Chinese BEV wide body truck market at 50%. Therefore taking its installed fleet as a whole it is one of the most significant OEMs today contributing to Scope 1 emissions reduction at minesites.
It argues that its market differentiators include having battery mining truck models going back to 2008, therefore having 15 years of practical customer experience and products which are more mature. It also has several established models – its battery trucks including 60 t (YKY90E), 70 t (YKT105E) and 80 t (YKT115E) models. The company says its can offer either fixed chargers or battery swapping to mining customers. On sales and service in some locations it is using its own direct after sales team but follows up with establishment of a full local subsidiary and/or local distributor.
But the underlying strength is its global importance in supplying the BEV bus market. Yutong started electric technology development for buses back in 1999 and today there are more than 170,000 battery buses and other battery vehicles in China and overseas markets; this includes 888 battery buses and other vehicles operating in Qatar for FIFA during the World Cup.
To give some important domestic mining project examples, earlier this year after two months of trial operation in 5,200 m-altitude Huatailong copper-gold mining area in Tibet, Pizu Group decided to purchase a large fleet Yutong BEV mining trucks. Also in Tibet, Zijin Mining’s world class Julong copper mine has used Yutong BEVs in development works, again at well over 5,000 m. In coal mining, customers include Mongolia Energy Corporation while it also supplies BEV trucks to the limestone mining operations of some of China’s leading cement producers such as China United Cement Corporation (CUCC), China National Building Material Group (CNBM) and Esheng Group. Another major customer is bauxite and alumina group East Hope Group.
A notable new export market is Chile – SQM has deployed a Yutong 28 t ZKH5310ZLJP6BEV with a 422 kWh battery pack. With a range of up to 200 km and 28 t of capacity, Chile’s first electric mining truck will be used at SQM’s operations in the Antofagasta Region. In collaboration with the mining company, project partner Enel X is also installing a high capacity charging station unlike any other in Chile.
The new E-truck is expected to make 86 km trips from the Coya Sur potassium nitrate plant in María Elena to the port of Tocopilla, travelling an estimated 7,500 km per month. The production system at Coya Sur uses intermediary salts of sodium nitrate taken from Nueva Victoria, and potassium chloride from the Atacama salt flats. Enel X and SQM developed a leasing model for the purchase of the electric truck and the installation of a 150 kW charging station that can fully charge the truck’s battery in three hours. The charging infrastructure will be installed at the Coya Sur plant in María Elena, guaranteeing almost 200 km of operation.
If the project is successful, the companies will add the Salar de Atacama-Carmen Lithium Chemical Plant route to the initiative. This is the highest traffic route for the lithium process, with 230 trucks in service. SQM work sites could replace 320 high-capacity diesel trucks with electric vehicles, 90 of which are used on the same route as the first truck, over a five-year period.
