In August, China's heavy truck market sold a total of about 84,000 vehicles, and annual sales are expected to return to the scale of one million

The Zhitong Finance App learned that data from the First Commercial Vehicle Network shows that in August 2025, China's heavy truck market sold a total of about 84,000 vehicles (wholesale caliber, including exports and new energy), a slight decrease of 1% from July this year, and an increase of about 35% over 62,500 vehicles in the same period last year. This is also the fifth consecutive rise in the heavy truck market since April of this year.

From January to August 2025, the cumulative sales volume in China's heavy truck market is close to 710,000 units. Over the next four months, the average monthly sales volume of heavy trucks will only exceed 73,000 units, and the annual sales volume of heavy trucks will exceed 1 million units. Judging from the current market conditions and terminal demand, this expectation is expected to be met. This means that after a lapse of three years, the heavy truck market will finally return to the sales volume of one million new vehicles.

Monthly chart of sales volume in China's heavy truck market from 2019 to 2025 (unit: vehicle)

In August, 84,000 heavy trucks were sold, and there is no doubt that one million units will be sold throughout the year

According to First Commercial Vehicle Network, when looking at 84,000 vehicles in a single month in the last eight years, it is the second highest level. It is only lower than the 130,000 units in August 2020. It is higher than the sales volume in August in other years. The gold content is relatively high, and the market performance also slightly exceeds expectations. Cumulatively, from January to August of this year, the cumulative sales volume of China's heavy truck market exceeded 700,000 vehicles — reaching about 708,000 units, an increase of about 13% over the previous year. There is little doubt that the annual sales volume will exceed 1 million vehicles.

The reason behind the year-on-year increase in heavy truck wholesale sales of more than 30% in August is not a “skyscraper”, but rather a rise in domestic terminal sales. In August of this year, domestic terminal heavy truck sales are expected to increase sharply by nearly 50% year on year, a further increase compared to 39% in July. There are two reasons for the sharp year-on-year increase in terminal sales. On the one hand, the base for the same period last year was low, and on the other hand, it was undoubtedly driven by policy. By the end of May, the truck trade-in rules in almost all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions had been implemented. Therefore, from mid-late May to August, this policy maintained a stable promotion effect on the new heavy truck market, which in turn promoted the heavy truck industry's rapid year-on-year growth for five consecutive months.

2015-2025 annual sales chart of China's heavy truck industry (unit: 10,000 vehicles)

Second, exports continued to rise steadily. In August of this year, China's heavy truck export wholesale sales volume is expected to increase by about 10% year-on-year, and the performance of this segment also exceeded expectations.

Heavy natural gas trucks are finally recovering! Electric heavy trucks continue to “advance by leaps and bounds”

In August, wholesale sales of heavy trucks and domestic terminal sales both increased again. The most popular gas trucks (natural gas heavy trucks) and electric trucks (new energy heavy trucks) all achieved year-on-year increases. Gas cards, in particular, have finally reversed their decline, and the recovery momentum is obvious.

According to the observations of First Commercial Vehicle Network, overall domestic terminal sales in August this year showed the same relatively rapid growth. The growth rate was close to 50%, and there was only a slight decline of about 6-7% from the previous month. Among them, electric heavy trucks continued to advance rapidly, showing explosive growth over the previous year; the growth rate of diesel heavy trucks declined; and heavy natural gas trucks finally welcomed the “dawn”. After five consecutive months of year-on-year decline, they ushered in a recovery, and the year-on-year growth rate was high.

Let's look at heavy gas trucks first. In August, demand for gas vehicle terminals picked up markedly. Not only did it achieve a month-on-month increase of more than 15%, but also a sharp increase of more than 30% over the same period last year! The domestic penetration rate is also expected to recover from less than 22% in July to around 26%-27% in August. Gas trucks returned to the growth channel after the “five consecutive declines” in the market. On the one hand, the reason was that the base for vehicle LNG remained low at around 4.3-4.8 yuan/kg, and the oil and gas price difference was relatively stable. Coupled with the implementation of the trade-in policy in the northern region (the northern region is the main sales area for heavy gas trucks), this led to a continuous improvement in demand for heavy gas trucks, which eventually formed a “qualitative change” in August.

Let's take another look at electric heavy trucks. Since the beginning of this year, new energy heavy trucks have continued to be popular in the short- and medium-haul freight market. Coupled with the demand for electric trucks to replace used vehicles brought about by the truck trade-in policy, First Commercial Vehicle Network expects sales of NEV terminals to exceed 16,000 units in August, an increase of more than 1.6 times over the previous year (which can also remain flat from month to month), creating a new high of sales volume in this segment in August. The industry penetration rate in a single month is likely to exceed 27%, creating a new monthly high for the electrification penetration rate of heavy trucks.

Furthermore, domestic diesel heavy truck terminal sales are expected to increase by more than 25% year on year in August, but there was a clear decline from month to month. The month-on-month decline is expected to be around 20%. Overall, there is a certain relationship between fuel trucks and gas trucks, which is particularly evident in the tractor segment.