Explosive Growth in Heavy Truck Charging Demand: Liquid Cooling Technology Will Be the Mainstream Choice

　　August 2026 data shows that the monthly penetration rate of domestic NEW ENERGY heavy trucks has climbed to 47.43%, and the industry is accelerating from closed scenarios to trunk-line logistics. As energy replenishment power enters the megawatt level, one trend is already clear: liquid cooling technology will become an inevitable choice for the industry's scaled development.

　　This is not the technical preference of any single company, but a common shift after the entire industry reaches the power critical point. The greater the charging power, the more equipment needs to maintain stable output in long-term, high-frequency, and high-load operations -- the liquid-cooling architecture is precisely a key link in converting heat dissipation capability into sustainable power output, allowing megawatt-level energy replenishment to truly deliver over the long term.

　　At the 2026 International Digital Energy Exhibition held from September 15 to 17, Huawei Digital Power showcases a megawatt-level liquid-cooled ultra-fast charging solution. The solution integrates 1.44MW ultra-fast charging, a fully liquid-cooled architecture, and a PV-storage-charging system, driving another upgrade of all-electric logistics from four dimensions: industry -- addressing "whether it can be used"; technology -- addressing "whether it is easy to use"; business -- addressing "whether it is worth investing in"; ecosystem -- addressing "whether it can be sustained".

Industrial value: Breaking the scale bottleneck.

　　Currently, the electrification rate in closed scenarios such as ports, mining areas, and steel plants has exceeded 70%, but the penetration rate on 300-500 km intercity trunk lines is only 22%, while 80% of the country's road freight capacity is concentrated on expressway trunk lines.

　　As of early 2026, the density of the interprovincial trunk-line charging network is only 0.1 stations per 100 kilometers. Energy replenishment time and coverage of facilities along the route directly determine whether electric heavy trucks can move from closed scenarios to open trunk lines. Megawatt ultra-fast charging extends efficient energy replenishment from fixed stations to long-distance trunk lines, alleviating the range and timeliness pressure faced by battery-electric heavy truck fleets.

　　In March 2026, Huawei Digital Power and partners conducted a test on an actual freight route from Huizhou to Wuhan, with a total distance of 1,046 kilometers. The test vehicle equipped with a 3.5C battery, under 2,400A steady-state charging capability, achieved a maximum output power of 1.44MW and charged from 10% to 90% SOC in only 18 minutes, matching the driver's rest time en route, with transport efficiency comparable to traditional fuel heavy trucks.

　　According to the plan of 11 departments, by 2030, the penetration rate of NEW ENERGY heavy trucks will reach 40%, the fleet will exceed 1.6 million units, and about 3,000 supporting charging and battery-swapping stations will be built. The vehicle market alone will drive a scale of over 1 trillion yuan; adding charging and battery-swapping infrastructure, battery leasing, operation and maintenance services, etc., the market space of the entire industry chain is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan. Megawatt ultra-fast charging is precisely the key infrastructure that unlocks this industry chain.

Technical value: Full liquid cooling supports the megawatt level.

　　When charging power enters the megawatt level, continuous high-current output brings greater heat dissipation pressure to core components such as charging guns, cables, and power modules. Therefore, the real value of liquid cooling is to enable megawatt-level ultra-fast charging to withstand long-term, high-frequency, and high-load operations.

　　Huawei's liquid-cooling heat dissipation solution has a heat transfer speed about 3 times that of air-cooling solutions and a thermal conductivity about 12 times higher, supporting continuous and stable high-current output, with system efficiency reaching 95%. By comparison, traditional air-cooled charging stations have an overall power loss rate close to 10%.

　　For complex operating conditions such as high temperature, sand and dust, high humidity and high salt fog, high altitude, and low temperature, Huawei's liquid-cooled ultra-fast charging architecture adopts a fully sealed design, with a designed service life of more than 10 years, doubling that of traditional air-cooling solutions. This means liquid cooling not only reduces long-term O&M costs but also directly improves the charging throughput capacity of stations.

　　As single-vehicle charging enters the megawatt level, stations also face instantaneous load pressure caused by concentrated charging. Huawei uses DC bus and full-domain power pooling to uniformly schedule charging power, and combines an AI PV-storage-charging system to improve photovoltaic consumption capacity, achieve peak shaving and valley filling, and improve power utilization efficiency; the comprehensive revenue of a station can increase by more than 10%.

　　In terms of reliability, Huawei's full series of ultra-fast charging solutions have completed 7,200 hours of full-load operation testing under a 55°C high-temperature environment and obtained certifications such as China Automotive NEW ENERGY's "Charging Life Durability Star" and China Automotive Research's "Megawatt Terminal High Quality". During the exhibition, Huawei will also display its energy storage safety and grid-friendly certification certificate.

Commercial value: Validating the profitability model.

　　Once technical capability is in place, the key to scaled development shifts to commercial returns. Huawei advances ultra-fast charging network construction with a "point-line-area" approach: from single-station operation, to trunk-line connectivity, and then to regional networking, gradually expanding the operating radius of electric heavy trucks and the utilization efficiency of infrastructure.

　　Building the foundation at the "point": achieving significant cost reduction through high turnover at single stations. Taking the world's first 100MW-level heavy truck ultra-fast charging station put into operation in Beichuan, Sichuan, as an example, a vehicle can save 1.5 yuan per kilometer in energy costs, and the energy cost saved by a single vehicle in three years can cover the purchase cost of a new vehicle.

　　At the same time, ultra-fast energy replenishment increases the overall operating efficiency of the station by 15%, validating the single-station profitability model of core hubs. Similar economics have been verified in multiple scenarios. According to calculations by Shandong Port Logistics Group, battery-electric heavy trucks cost 1.2-1.5 yuan per kilometer in electricity, while diesel heavy trucks cost about 2.8-3 yuan; based on an average annual driving distance of 120,000 kilometers, energy costs can be reduced by at least 150,000 yuan per year.

　　Connecting at the "line": after electric heavy trucks enter trunk-line logistics, the business model needs to shift from operating a station to supporting a transport line. Huawei and its partners have now built more than 20 ultra-fast charging logistics routes, including Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou, Linyi-Qingdao, Mianyang-Chengdu, etc., supporting electric heavy trucks in entering longer-distance trunk-line transportation through energy replenishment networks along the routes.

　　Taking STO Express's 320-kilometer route from Shanghai to Jinhua as an example, NEW ENERGY heavy trucks reduce per-kilometer costs by 0.45 yuan compared with fuel heavy trucks; a single vehicle driving 180,000 kilometers per year can save 81,000 yuan in energy costs, or up to 95,000 yuan if valley electricity prices are used, saving more than 700,000 yuan over the full life cycle (8 years).

　　Forming a network at the "area": when hubs and trunk lines are woven into a network, the transport capacity potential of all-domain logistics is released. Relying on the comprehensive coverage of its ultra-fast charging station network, Xingwen County, Yibin, Sichuan, has taken the lead in achieving full electrification of county-level logistics, increasing overall transport capacity by 20% and adding 160 million yuan in total revenue per year for local fleets.

Ecosystem value: Co-building the ultra-fast charging network.

　　After single-station profitability and trunk-line networking are validated, further scaling requires industry chain collaboration. Huawei adheres to an open and collaborative industrial approach, joining hands with station operators, vehicle manufacturers, and logistics capacity providers to form an ultra-fast charging alliance, achieving adaptation between vehicle models and charging facilities, equipment interconnection, and coordination between stations and logistics routes. As the ultra-fast charging alliance expands, the scale effect of liquid-cooled ultra-fast charging as the preferred energy replenishment choice for electric heavy trucks has emerged, and a global megawatt ultra-fast charging network is accelerating into shape.

　　As of December 2025, Huawei's ultra-fast charging network has covered 32 provincial-level administrative regions, more than 200 cities, and more than 200 counties across China, deployed ultra-fast charging networks along more than 60 expressways, and expanded its business to more than 40 overseas countries and regions. As of August 2026, the number of covered cities globally has expanded to more than 400, the number of countries and regions has increased to more than 60, ultra-fast charging corridors along expressways have reached more than 70, and ultra-fast charging logistics trunk lines have exceeded 20. From the 100MW-level hub station in Beichuan to the thousand-kilometer trunk line from Huizhou to Wuhan, and from Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou to Linyi-Qingdao, a megawatt ultra-fast charging network covering "point-line-area" is accelerating into shape.

　　When energy replenishment is no longer a bottleneck, the imaginative space of all-electric logistics truly opens up. According to the target of a 40% penetration rate by 2030, the market space of the NEW ENERGY heavy truck industry chain is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan.

　　The value of Huawei's megawatt ultra-fast charging lies not only in making charging faster, but also in enabling electric heavy trucks on every transport route to "leave whenever they want" just like fuel vehicles -- bringing green transport capacity into more logistics scenarios and ensuring high-quality charging wherever there is a road.