Earlier this week, cross-border logistics company Congo Carriers announced that it had started running its SANY EV trucks on the long-haul shipping route between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The company confirmed that the maiden commercial runs were successfully completed using two SANY EV350 4×2 units.
The move adds Congo Carriers to the growing list of transport operators beginning to test electric heavy trucks in real freight environments, rather than only controlled demonstrations or short urban routes.
For the regional freight market, the announcement is also another sign of SANY’s growing push into Southern Africa’s commercial vehicle space. SANY Truck describes itself as a global new-energy heavy-truck brand, with more than 45,000 electric heavy trucks operating globally and models exported to more than 50 countries and regions.
In South Africa, SANY is building on an existing regional footprint. The company has operated in the country since 2006 and has positioned its Southern African business around equipment sales, rental, service, financing and after-sales support.
That support structure is becoming increasingly important as electric trucks enter the freight market. For new EV truck owners, the vehicle purchase is only one part of the equation. Operators also need access to charging infrastructure, battery support, technical backup, trained drivers, route planning and reliable maintenance.
SANY’s regional EV truck strategy appears to be developing around that wider ecosystem. In 2024, SANY signed an MoU with Zero Carbon Logistics to support the development of renewable-energy charging stations for electric trucks on South Africa’s N3 corridor between Johannesburg and Durban. The proposed first phase included six charging stations, forming part of a wider planned truck-charging network on major freight routes.
South Africa’s charging infrastructure market has also started to move. Reuters reported that CHARGE, formerly Zero Carbon Charge, launched its first off-grid, solar-powered charging station along the Johannesburg–Durban corridor in May 2026, with plans to install 60 off-grid charging stations nationwide by the end of 2027.
For Congo Carriers, the deployment of SANY EV trucks between Johannesburg and Cape Town is therefore not just a fleet announcement. It reflects a broader shift in the supplier market around electric freight, where OEMs, dealers, charging providers and fleet-support partners are beginning to build the systems that new EV truck owners will need.
For Zambia, the DRC and the wider Central African logistics market, the immediate lesson is not that diesel trucks will disappear quickly. They will remain central to long-haul freight for some time. But the supplier opportunity is opening.
As electric trucks become more visible in South Africa, regional operators, OEMs, dealers and service providers will be watching closely to see where the model can work next — especially in mining logistics, depot-based freight, industrial shuttles and high-utilization corridor routes.