CATL brings its megawatt-charging Tectrans II truck battery to IAA Transportation 2026

At IAA Transportation 2026 in Hannover, CATL presented Tectrans II, the newest generation of its commercial-vehicle battery line. The pack had already appeared in China as an ultra-fast-charging product with 8C capability, and the European stage debut put the spotlight on its megawatt-class charging performance.

Built as a modular platform covering heavy-duty trucks, medium-duty trucks and buses, Tectrans II reaches up to 1,000 km of range by stacking standardized packs in different configurations. CATL says the approach can halve vehicle development cycles and cut OEM R&D spending by 60 to 70 percent. The cells deliver 170 Wh/kg — about 13% denser than the industry norm — freeing roughly 0.6 tonnes of extra payload, and the system returns 96% round-trip efficiency. Megawatt charging restores 80% in 25 minutes, while heavy trucks get a 12-year, 1.5-million-km service life with 70% capacity retained at the end.

Durability credentials include a hot-formed steel lid rated to survive 10,000 presses at 180 kg, a floor plate absorbing 1,000 J impacts, an extruded-aluminum housing good for 250 kN of lateral crush load, 15-year corrosion protection, and a redundant multi-branch BMS that isolates faults so the vehicle can keep driving.

CATL also signed an MoU with DHL to create "Green Freight Corridors" across Europe, co-developing purpose-built electric trucks and running pilot deployments. The company enters the partnership from a position of strength at home: it held 44% of China's power-battery share in electric commercial vehicles in the first half of 2026, has topped the heavy-truck segment for five straight years with more than 60% share, reached 37.87 GWh of installed commercial-vehicle capacity in China, and powers over 2 million commercial vehicles worldwide.