As the core component of electric trucks, the selection of powertrain technology directly determines vehicle performance, operating costs and market competitiveness.
At present, the two mainstream technical paths in the electric truck industry are central drive and electric drive axle. This is not a simple debate over technical merits, but a profound change related to industrial chain restructuring, user value re-evaluation, and even whether China's commercial vehicles can overtake competitors in the global market.
Comparison of Technical Characteristics Between Central Drive and Electric Drive Axle
The essential difference between central drive and electric drive axle lies in the design philosophy of decentralized layout versus high integration. This divergence is directly reflected in key technical indicators such as efficiency, space and structural complexity.
The central drive system is developed on the basis of the traditional fuel heavy-duty truck drive architecture, replacing the "engine + gearbox" with a "motor + reducer" while retaining mechanical transmission parts such as drive shafts. It places an independent motor on the chassis and transmits power to the drive axle through the drive shaft.
This structure has many mechanical parts and a long transmission path, with energy continuously lost due to friction in the gearbox and drive shaft. The overall system efficiency is conservatively estimated at about 85%.
Electric drive axle represents a completely different design philosophy. It highly integrates core components such as motors, reducers and differentials inside the axle, cancels the drive shaft, realizes direct power drive, and greatly shortens the transmission path.
This efficiency gap is of far-reaching significance for heavy-duty truck operations. The efficiency of the traditional central drive route is only 85%, while the integrated electric drive axle boosts efficiency to 95%, directly reducing power consumption by 10%.
Lightweighting is the second major technical bonus of electric drive axle. After canceling the drive shaft and related parts, the vehicle's curb weight can be reduced by more than 100kg to several hundred kilograms.
Compared with traditional direct drive solutions, electric drive axle achieves a lightweight of about 500kg, with the axle itself reducing weight by more than 150kg. For the logistics industry that charges by ton, the saved load capacity is directly converted into profits.
In addition, electric drive axle cancels the drive shaft, and the huge space vacated in the middle of the chassis can be used for under-mounted battery layout. Compared with the rear-mounted batteries commonly used in central drive vehicles, the under-mounted design lowers the vehicle's center of gravity, significantly improves driving stability, reduces rollover risk, and disperses front axle load to extend tire life. This is the technical root why electric trucks can easily carry 400kWh or even 600kWh large batteries and lead in range.
In terms of intelligent potential, electric drive axle also has inherent advantages. The greatly simplified mechanical transmission structure makes electronic signal transmission more direct, facilitates precise vehicle control and real-time response, and lays a foundation for advanced driver assistance systems, intelligent energy recovery and other functions. As the "second half" competition of new energy trucks shifts to intelligence, this advantage will become more prominent.
Practical Dilemmas of Electric Drive Axle Popularization vs the Ballast Role of Central Drive
However, technical advantages do not equal market dominance. Although the industry recognizes the many advantages of electric drive axle, so far, the penetration rate of electric drive axle in electric heavy-duty tractors remains low.
This is because the cost of electric drive axle is high. Electric drive axle integrates core components such as high-power motors, precision gear transmissions and power modules, so the single-axle cost is significantly higher than traditional mechanical axles and central drive systems.
In contrast, central drive vehicles adopt a mature mechanical transmission system, with relatively low vehicle manufacturing costs. In short-distance transportation scenarios such as coal mines and sand gravel where freight rates are low, fleet decision-makers give top priority to initial procurement costs. For a thin-margin transportation model, spending an extra 30,000 to 50,000 yuan on a vehicle means a direct increase in account period pressure.
Therefore, although mass production is gradually reducing the cost of electric drive axle, the cost gap with central drive is still difficult to fully narrow in the short term.
At the same time, reliability verification is the second threshold. Heavy-duty trucks operate in extreme environments-overloading, long climbs, high vibration and harsh road conditions impose extremely strict tests on any new technology.
The deep integration of core components such as motors and reducers in electric drive axle improves efficiency but also brings new technical challenges.
For example, motors vibrate greatly on poor road conditions, inter-axle locking is unavailable in multi-axle drive, and driving capacity decreases on complex roads.
Under heavy-load conditions, the long-term high-torque output of electric drive axle puts higher requirements on motor insulation, gear durability and thermal management, and its reliability in extreme environments such as high cold, high temperature and mines still needs long-term verification.
In addition, maintenance convenience is also a prominent practical obstacle in user feedback. The decentralized structure of central drive has clear fault points, and most maintenance work can be completed at ordinary repair stations with minimal vehicle downtime loss.
The highly integrated design of electric drive axle complicates fault troubleshooting. Motors and reducers are integrated together, and once a problem occurs, professional technicians and special equipment are required for detection and maintenance. Some core components even need to be replaced as a whole, resulting in high maintenance costs and long downtime. Especially in remote areas, maintenance response is slow and maintenance costs are high.
For logistics enterprises requiring high vehicle availability, the direct loss and customer churn risk of a vehicle being "down" for one day are enough to make them cautious about new technologies.
Against this background, central drive system remains the mainstream drive method for new energy heavy-duty trucks.
The working principle of central drive system is similar to that of fuel heavy-duty trucks. Its motors, gearboxes, drive shafts and other components are mature parts that have been used in the market for many years with clear fault modes, and have stronger adaptability to extremely complex working conditions such as mines and construction sites.
At the same time, the gearboxes, drive shafts and other components of central drive vehicles are not much different from those of traditional fuel heavy-duty trucks, and existing fuel heavy-duty truck maintenance outlets and engineers can get started with a little training. For the transportation industry, time is efficiency, and maintenance convenience directly affects vehicle availability.
It is worth mentioning that the research and development of central drive technology has not stagnated, and many enterprises are actively improving its efficiency. This shows that central drive and electric drive axle are not a "zero-sum game" but two parallel evolving paths.
Scenario Adaptation Determines Path Selection: Electric Drive Axle Takes the Lead in Line-Haul Logistics
The final pattern of the two technical paths is shaped by the actual needs of different transportation scenarios.
Line-haul logistics will be the first breakthrough battlefield for electric drive axle. This judgment is well-founded: line-haul logistics features standard load, long distance and high availability, and is highly sensitive to energy consumption costs. The efficiency advantage of electric drive axle can be fully exerted in such scenarios.
STO Express introduced 36 Deepway new energy heavy-duty trucks for the first time in early 2025, and purchased an additional 100 units in January 2026. These vehicles are equipped with distributed electric drive axle.
STO's actual test data shows that with self-built charging piles and valley power charging strategy, the vehicle power consumption reaches 1.15 kWh per kilometer. In terms of lightweight design, EA5000N distributed electric drive axle reduces weight by 100–200kg compared with similar products. It has significant advantages in total cost of ownership.
In short-distance transportation scenarios such as coal mines and sand gravel, central drive has more advantages. This is because such scenarios feature short transportation distances, poor road conditions, low freight rates, long account periods and common overloading. In these scenarios, initial procurement cost is the decisive factor, maintenance convenience is crucial, and power consumption sensitivity is relatively low. The comprehensive advantages of central drive vehicles in cost, reliability and maintenance network coverage make them still the optimal solution in these scenarios.
It is worth mentioning that with the growth of large battery vehicles with more than 600kWh, battery layout space has become a key constraint in vehicle design. The chassis space vacated after electric drive axle cancels the drive shaft provides ideal physical conditions for under-mounted large batteries and under-body battery swapping. This trend will push more vehicle enterprises to choose electric drive axle solutions on the new-generation electric heavy-duty truck platforms.
Therefore, central drive and electric drive axle are not about who replaces whom, but about who is more suitable for which scenario. The core feature of the truck industry is diversified scenarios, and no technical solution can cover all scenarios.
For decision-makers of technical routes, they should abandon the either-or thinking and choose technical paths according to the target scenarios of their own products:
For scenarios focusing on high-efficiency operations such as line-haul logistics and urban logistics, priority can be given to laying out electric drive axle to seize the dividends of efficiency and intelligence; for scenarios such as resource transportation and extreme working conditions, we can continue to focus on central drive, optimize its reliability and efficiency, while paying attention to the technical iteration of electric drive axle and layout in a timely manner.
For component suppliers, they should adopt a dual-track layout: not only consolidate the advantages of core components of central drive, improve maturity and cost control capabilities, but also increase R&D investment in electric drive axle integration technology and core components, especially in key fields such as motors, precision gears and thermal management systems, to meet the large-scale development needs of electric drive axle.
