Longking presents a 350-ton battery-electric mining truck

At a media ceremony in Longyan City, Fujian Province, Zijin Longking presented a three-axle truck carrying a claimed 350 tons of gross vehicle weight. The ZL230E, also referred to as the LK350E, is described by Longking as China’s largest-tonnage pure electric mining truck, with a 230-ton payload capacity.

According to Longking, the machine is built around a 1,400 kWh battery pack and two 800 kW electric motors fitted in each of the rear drive axles. Advanced drive systems coordinate power across those axles, matching output in real time to maintain uphill performance and maneuverability in complex mining environments.

Charging is where the electric drivetrain makes its operational case. Longking says the battery can move from 10 to 90% capacity in just 25 minutes, reducing the downtime associated with refuelling compared with diesel trucks. The source does not provide independent testing, operating-cycle data or a comparison of total energy costs.

The project also joins two technologies that are often developed separately. Zijin Longking supplies the battery-electric truck platform, while Australia’s EACON contributes systems for perception, decision-making, control and cloud-based dispatch — the components needed to run a haul truck without a driver. EACON says it operates more than 3,100 autonomous trucks across more than 40 large-scale mines, including sites in China and Australia.

Concretely, the payoff is a potential route toward cleaner, highly automated hauling for open-pit mines, where trucks repeatedly move enormous loads over controlled routes. The presentation shows that electric power is reaching mining equipment at a much larger scale; it does not establish how widely this specific truck is deployed, how it performs in daily service or whether its claimed charging time has been independently reproduced.