BYD's 150,000th Commercial EV Is a Semi Whose Charge Claim Implies 720 kW
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BYD's 150,000th Commercial EV Is a Semi Whose Charge Claim Implies 720 kW
Electrek reports a 600 kWh pack and a 30-minute charge for the Q3, figures that CnEVPost's report on the same milestone does not carry.
BYD built its 150,000th commercial new-energy vehicle at its Huai'an plant in Jiangsu province on Oct. 9, and it was a Q3 electric semi tractor, according to CnEVPost. BYD announced the milestone on Oct. 10 and said it will increase investment in long-haul heavy-duty trucks.
The specifications that make the truck interesting come from one outlet, and the other does not carry them.
BYD's ETT 44, shown at IAA Transportation in September. It is a different model from the Q3.
What the two reports say about the Q3
Electrek, in a piece by Jo Borrás, reports a 600 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery, 600 kW of power (about 800 hp) from two motors, a gross combined weight of up to 108,000 pounds, a range of about 325 km (about 200 miles) and a claimed 20 to 80 percent charge in 30 minutes on dual-gun DC charging. It describes the weight as "reportedly" achievable and the charge time as BYD's claim.
CnEVPost confirms only the 600 kW peak motor power, a Blade Battery designed for commercial vehicles and dual-gun fast charging. It gives no battery capacity, range or charge time. Electrek links no BYD source for its figures, so the 600 kWh and 325 km are single-source here.
What the charging claim implies
Take Electrek's numbers at face value. A 20 to 80 percent charge of a 600 kWh pack is 360 kWh. Delivered in 30 minutes, that is an average of 720 kW into the battery, above the truck's 600 kW motor output. Mitsubishi's ASX VR-e accepts 134 kW DC charging, so the semi's claimed average is more than five times that car's peak. That is arithmetic on an unverified claim, not a measurement, and the charger power needed is the number to ask for.
The 325 km figure, on the same 600 kWh, implies about 1.85 kWh per kilometre at the starting point Electrek gives; the article does not say the load or the test cycle.
Commercial vehicles are a small share of BYD's volume
CnEVPost's tables put BYD's commercial NEV sales at 6,848 units in September, up 113.33 percent from 3,210 a year earlier and down 0.88 percent from August. For January through September, sales were 53,032, up 28.46 percent from 41,284 in the same months of 2025 (the 2025 total is my sum of CnEVPost's monthly figures).
Against that, BYD's total NEV sales for January to September were 3,131,576, down 3.94 percent. Commercial vehicles are about 1.7 percent of that volume, growing while the whole shrinks. Freight electrification is drawing money on other tracks too: Parallel Systems raised a $100 million Series C for driverless freight rail.
- Jan.4533 units
- Feb.2408 units
- March4529 units
- April7023 units
- May6463 units
- June6180 units
- July8139 units
- Aug.6909 units
- Sept.6848 units
Source: CnEVPost, Oct. 10, 2026
| Period | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| September | 3,210 | 6,848 |
| January to September | 41,284 (derived) | 53,032 |
What is not known
Monthly sales have ranged from 6,180 to 8,139 since April, with September 0.88 percent below August; the 113 percent annual rise rests on a low September 2025 base of 3,210, not a surge. Neither source gives a Q3 price, a production rate for the truck or a delivery date. CnEVPost says the company sells commercial vehicles in more than 70 countries and regions, and that truck development began in 2012.
Electrek's 108,000-pound claim and the 30-minute charge are the two figures to test. The first independent charging log of a Q3 on a named charger would settle whether the 720 kW average is real.
Sources
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