The first heavy-duty truck charging and swapping station in Northeast China was put into use in Harbin New Zone in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang province, on April 2.
 
The station supports automatic unmanned battery replacements for new energy heavy trucks, provides cloud platform services that integrate electric vehicles, battery banks, and charging and swapping stations, and supports functions such as mobile terminal electricity price preview, route navigation, scanning codes for battery replacements, and online settlement.
 
The station covers an area of about 70 square meters, which is about 40 percent smaller than that of traditional swapping stations. The fully enclosed cage structure of the whole station can withstand up to level-12 strong winds and level-seven strong earthquakes.
 
It is waterproof, dustproof, anti-corrosion, durable, and can fully withstand the extremely cold climate in Heilongjiang, with a minimum temperature of -30°C.
 
It is understood that a battery can store 230 kWh of electricity, and the mileage of a fully loaded 49-ton commercial mixed vehicle can reach 120-150 kilometers. The whole battery charging process takes less than 5 minutes.
 
According to calculations, considering the huge difference in the unit price of fuel and electricity, when compared with diesel heavy trucks, electric heavy trucks can reduce transportation costs by about 20 percent in winter and 25 percent in summer.