The market for new energy and autonomous wide body mining trucks in China is highly competitive – now that the hybrid and all battery models are well proven, including in unmanned operation – all of the major companies, both on the truck supply side and the AHS side, are looking to gain market share as major mining operations invest in a new wave of green and intelligent mining fleets.
On June 2, SANY shipped 50 units of autonomous SKT145E 90 t class electric wide body mining trucks to mining sites in Inner Mongolia. Built for heavy-duty mining operations, the SKT145E is engineered with at 90 t rated payload and a 50 m³ struck volume; 801k Wh CATL battery with 4,500+ cycles and <1 hour charging time; a robust 620/900 kW power system with a 35% gradeability; plus a triple braking system delivering 3,500 Nm continuous torque for safety.
The OEM stated: “This large-scale delivery highlights SANY’s leading strength in electrification, autonomy and intelligent mining solutions. With an availability of over 90% and key components backed by five year warranties, these fully unmanned trucks bring safer, greener and more efficient operations to the site.”
The model is the next step up from the already widely deployed 72 t class SKT105E – which is operating both inside and outside of China and is even being locally manufactured in India at SANY’s factory in Pune. It is being used at numerous mines globally, including LKAB’s Svappavaara operations in Sweden, with earthmoving contractor Snells Entreprenad AB, the fleet of trucks having been supplied by Swedish SANY dealer Nordkust Maskin. Other export examples include at Barrick’s Kibali Gold Mine in DRC with contractor DTP Mining; and a number of quarry operators in Poland and other countries.
Recently, SANY also unveiled a cabless and autonomous version of the SKT145E – the SKT145Ei, which supports on-site and remote takeover, and fully autonomous driving modes, enabling flexible operation across different mining scenarios. It features technologies such as integrated sensing, edge-cloud collaboration, and intelligent scheduling, capable of handling harsh conditions such as extreme cold, high temperatures, heavy loads, and complex terrain, with key components achieving 100% autonomous controllability.