Fujian Postal Branch has recently launched a pilot project of using an electric tractor for trunk line transportation. According to operational data, the pilot vehicle helped reduce costs by over 13 percent compared with the previous fully-contracted transportation, with an estimated annual cost saving of approximately 200,000 yuan (about 27,500 US dollars) per vehicle.

Based on the actual operations of local postal routes and supporting conditions of energy replenishment facilities, Fujian Postal Branch advanced the transformation and upgrading of its trunk line vehicles through the mode of leased electric tractors plus self-operated container trailers. It has selected the Xiamen–Fuzhou–Xiamen–Quanzhou–Xiamen mail route, a 620-kilometer circular drop-and-pull transportation route, as its core pilot scenario, and deployed one electric heavy-duty truck with four trailers for regular operation. Leveraging the battery swap stations of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), the vehicle can get its energy efficiently replenished within 10 minutes. Fujian Postal Branch has also coordinated with the heavy-duty truck charging stations around the transportation nodes as auxiliary facilities to developed an energy replenishment network featuring battery swap stations as main facilities supplemented by charging stations. In this way, it has effectively addressed the range challenges facing electric heavy-duty trucks, and guaranteed the smooth and efficient pilot operation of the project.

The pilot electric heavy-duty truck records an energy consumption of 1.1 kWh per kilometer, with an energy cost of 1.13 yuan (about 0.16 US dollars) and a comprehensive operating cost of 5.565 yuan (about 0.78 US dollars) per kilometer, representing a notable cost reduction compared with the previous mode. At present, Fujian Postal Branch is also advancing the pilot of electric 9.6-meter box trucks, to further expand the application of new energy vehicles to transportation.