A Deepway looking very smart in Foodstuffs North Island livery, soon to be operating out of Palmerston North.
A recent software upgrade has improved the adaptive cruise control to one of the best available, and unleashed all 720hp.
Priced at around NZD100k cheaper than a similar diesel truck (after LEHVF).
Plus a lot cheaper energy prices (always, not just with the present distortions), lower servicing costs, zero emissions and currently, no RUC.
A lot to like.

Etrucks and Landex have a new home at 16 Sir William Ave, East Tamaki starting next week. Come and visit anytime.

Now we have space for a proper EV truck and machinery display.

Charging the demo Deepway at Meridan Kaikoura. If the scary fuel prices in the back ground are making your eyes water, give us a call, we will be able to help.

The first 17t XC135CREV electric excavator for NZ is nearly ready to ship.

Windrose have announced a longer wheelbase version with a 800kWh battery, seen here as a recreational vehicle or perhaps a horse transporter.

Another solar array this time in Al Dhafra in the UAE. The output is 2GW (roughly 20% of New Zealand’s electricity production) from the 21 square kilometer facility. The production price is around NZ 2.2c/kWh. Sure they have advantages of plenty of sun and desert, but it shows what can be achieved for NZD1.6 billion.

Perhaps a dedicated 50m x 50m solar array for truck charging? This one is good for 0.5MW or 3000 to 4000 kWh per day. Or roughly 8 Deepways.

Etrucks® delivered Mike Casey’s electric cherries to Parliament as part of an annual Rewiring Aotearoa event. An excellent promotion for all things electric.

A bit more about the trip here:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1278060111051070

We are delighted to kick off the Year of the Horse with the first sale of a Deepway in New Zealand. Soon to be seen in customers colours.

With that, our trusty demonstrator with 15,000 trouble free km is now available for sale on a bit of a deal. Contact us for details.

Etrucks will attend ConExpo in Las Vegas next week. Let me know if you would like to meet to view XCMG’s exhibit at booth F33005

Another XC968EV in our shop, soon to be delivered to Eco Central in Christchurch. It will be our 14th EV loader in operation in New Zealand.

We now have a 242kWh, 15t, XC948EV on order for New Zealand with the latest piston pump hydraulic system. 

On a bit larger scale this 126t XC9260EV wheel loader and the same size wheeled dozer are now in testing for Fortescue. We had a quick look while in assembly at the factory last month, but no pictures permitted at that stage.

We have a special promotion of the 28t XC988HEV hybrid wheel loader available at $400,000 + GST ex Penrose. Save $90k off the retail price.
Exceptional value for a loader with 640hp available, that only burns 15l/hr.
While it will happily run all day on diesel, you can plug it in to charge and save even more.

An XE160WEV wheeled excavator with swappable battery

Etrucks® absolutely supports the need for dry year energy security. But why allow the fossil fuel industry to levy the electricity consumers with their LNG proposal.
Follow these countries in the move away from coal and LNG to solar and wind to then pump hydro to keep our lake “batteries” full.

Solar generation with battery storage at your own facility is still the best solution. Australia now leads the world in the uptake of that option.

Also how interesting is Saudi Arabia’s ranking? They export oil and LNG to countries with no plan for the future, and invest the profits in solar and battery storage for themselves.

We were in China last week and test drove the first RHD Deepway 4×2 in icy conditions in Hefei. These have a 10t tare with a 513kWh swappable battery.

We also visited Shantui for a look at their latest Weichai powered 17t grader. 

Their 12t single drum roller with a Wechai Tier IIIA 170hp engine and Linde hydraulics is available now.

Shantui are famous for their dozers, this 71t SD60-C5 is powered by a 600hp Cummins and very well priced for it’s size

On to Xuzhou for a look at the XC988HEV hybrid 28t (Volvo L180 size) loader that uses only 15l of diesel per hour, even less if you charge it when you can.

We have special pricing of $418,000 + GST available for the first unit sold to New Zealand. That is excellent buying for such a capable 5m³ bucket loader.

The 59t XE9150EV is biggest pure EV wheel loader in the world, seen here in the video testing at the factory. It has a 1002kWh battery, the bucket is 8m³
https://youtu.be/omhorVUxf_8

We have one of these  short radius 17t XE135CREV pure electric excavators in build for New Zealand. 5 hours runtime for one hour charging.

A short video is here:
https://youtu.be/dkpuEw4LaN0

These guys have all run over 30,000 hours in their XCMG EV wheel loaders. With an energy saving of around $19 per hour for the 20t XC968EV size, they are $570,000 ahead of a diesel loader owner in energy costs so far.

Plus, not $1 spent on the transmission for service or failure as XCMG doesn’t use transmissions on EV wheel loaders. All are on their original batteries.

XCMG trucks charging at 1.4MW in Linyi. That achieves 20% to 80% charged in 15 minutes using the latest 3.5C Sunwoda battery.

The Huawei 2400A charger uses two charging guns and coolant gun.

XCMG pure electric machines track building at the Swedish MX WSGP

The growth in heavy electric trucks sales in China is astonishing. The graph only shows to Q2 2025, but there were 45,000 delivered in December alone. XCMG still leads the market with 35,000 heavy BEV trucks sold in 2025.

The proportion of hydrogen FCEV truck sales is still declining.

The Qinghai solar farm cluster now delivers 17GW, for comparison New Zealand produces 11GW of electricity in total. The 600 square kilometer array also increases the soil quality and pasture growth on the Tibetan plateau by reducing evaporation. 

Photo credit: Weimin Chu

An XE80N heading out to Natures Flame and the larger XE120W to McHale Hire, both located in Taupo.

From this month’s clever idea file how about a telescopic crane with stabilizing legs mounted on a forklift chassis.

Windrose has added a 70kW EPTO pump to the rear drive axle.

The Deepway is now fitted with SL fronts and is out towing on HPMV permits. The trial below with  Foodstuffs NI using their Fairfax electric quad trailer. One axle powers the refrigeration unit for a fully zero emissions solution.

There are now 10,000 Deepways running and approaching 400 million km with customers.

Dual gun charging is now quite routine for us, seen here achieving 320kW input in Turangi. That adds 200km loaded range in an hour.

In NZ terms this Windrose run in the Andes is the equivalent of climbing from sea level to the Aoraki Mt Cook summit and back down on each charge.
Arthur’s Pass or whatever your favourite hill is will be easy after this.

The XCMG hybrid wheel loaders are now cheaper to buy than the diesel equivalent.
The sweet spot is the 28t XC988HEV at $488,000 + GST ex Penrose.
Typical hourly energy costs for diesel, hybrid and EV:
XC988 diesel                    23l/h or              $36.80 at $1.60 per litre
XC988HEV hybrid            14.5l/h or           $23.20 at $1.60 per litre
XC988EV                         60kWh/h or        $9.60 at $0.16 per kWh

XCMG have launched their first wheel loader without hydraulics. The bucket functions and steering are all carried out by electric actuators for increased efficiency and near zero maintenance.

No pricing yet but the actuators look a bit expensive.

We have another XC968EV on order for the waste industry in NZ. The three motor, no transmission design, makes for the best EV loader you can buy.

A 4.4t rated XCMG model XC6-1056VN telehandler on it’s way to Fiji for Capital Construction to work in resort builds in the Mamanucas initially.

A render of the 55t fully electric XC9150EV fitted with a 1002kWh 2C battery

XCMG sold 3149 heavy BEV trucks in October for 18% market share in China. Our trusty E700 remains the number one selling heavy electric truck in the world.

The price of solar is now way lower than other energy in New Zealand. This opens up many new avenues for EV truck and machinery use.

The South Island tour of the Deepway went well including an out full, back empty, for Foodstuffs SI. Energy use was 1.35kWh/km so we would have achieved 400km with 10% battery remaining 

There is some stunning scenery down south, here going through the Lindis.

We achieved dual gun charging at several sites, with a maximum of 330kW input achieved at Z Waiouru. We were adding 230km loaded range per hour at that rate, not bad for a metro or intercity truck.

North Island testing included towing for  Nexus from the Wiri Freight Hub.
https://youtu.be/j0s9z7wlt5g

More testing out of Auckland. The longest was running to Hamilton return twice on a single charge, for 470km travelled with 10% battery remaining.

Windrose have secured a further USD150 million of funding in Europe. We should have full NZ compliance for our second demo E1400 unit this month

Dual gun charging the Windrose at Z Energy Turangi yesterday achieved 340kW input, adding 280km loaded range in an hour. That means Auckland to Wellington with top up charging during a drivers break will be easy.

EV truck sales are surging globally while hydrogen truck sales have slowed.

24% of new heavy truck sales in China are now EV

XCMG have signed to deliver 150 to 200 units of the 240t payload pure electric XDE260E dump trucks to Fortescue in Australia. This agreement will complement the EV wheel loaders, wheel dozers and graders XCMG is already developing for Fortescue.
This will maintain XCMGs leadership in EV construction machinery worldwide.

Speaking of EV wheel loaders XCMGs 55t pure electric XC9150EV is now in production with a 1002kWh 2C battery

Meanwhile at Etrucks another XC918EV heading out to work for United Civil

Etrucks have the first XC135U-E excavator for New Zealand in build. At 17t it will be the largest EV excavator in New Zealand when it arrives early next year.

This E400 will have the deck removed and a gantry added for skip bins.
The tipper body complete with HYVA cylinder and two way tailgate is available for $15,000 + GST ex Penrose.

We have 60kW, 120kW and 300kW DC fast chargers now available ex stock.

Another shipment of LC9 tracked scissors ready for delivery to Hireways.