When mining and quarrying operators ask whether to deploy electric trucks, the conversation moves quickly past sticker price to total cost of ownership. The headline number — USD 147,000 to USD 165,000 for a TZ3V 8×4 600 kWh versus USD 95,000 to 110,000 for an equivalent diesel dump truck — looks unfavourable for the electric truck. Run the numbers over an 8-year operating life, with realistic fuel, maintenance, battery replacement, and residual value assumptions, and the picture flips completely. This article walks through the model.
Both trucks are deployed in identical duty: a quarry or large construction site, 220 operating days per year, two shifts averaging 110 km per shift, or roughly 38,720 km per year per truck (24,080 km on-load and 14,640 km off-load repositioning). Real figures depend on site topography and load factor; we use the above as a baseline that mining customers tell us is representative.
Key input assumptions for the model:
For a diesel truck running 38,720 km per year and consuming 52 litres per 100 km:
20,134 litres × USD 1.20 = USD 24,160 per year, per truck
For an electric truck consuming 1.18 kWh per km:
45,690 kWh × USD 0.07 = USD 3,198 per year, per truck
Annual energy savings: USD 20,962 per truck. Over 8 years, ignoring electricity tariff inflation (we hold both prices flat for an apples-to-apples comparison), this is USD 167,696 per truck.
Diesel truck maintenance at USD 0.085 per km over 38,720 km per year is USD 3,291 per year, per truck. Electric at USD 0.038 per km is USD 1,471 per year, per truck. Annual maintenance savings: USD 1,820. Over 8 years: USD 14,560 per truck.
The maintenance savings are driven primarily by three factors: regenerative braking dramatically extends brake-pad and brake-disc life (we see 70 percent reduction on duty-cycle trucks), there is no engine oil to change, no transmission to service, no DPF or SCR to clean or replace, and the electric drivetrain has roughly 80 percent fewer moving parts than a diesel powertrain.
The electric truck costs roughly USD 50,000 to 55,000 more than the diesel equivalent upfront. This is capital that has to be funded.
At a 12 percent annual cost of capital over 8 years, the additional USD 50,000 incurs USD 4,360 per year in interest cost, or USD 34,880 over 8 years. This partially offsets the operational savings.
After 8 years, the diesel truck is worth roughly 18 percent of its original acquisition cost, or USD 19,800. The electric truck is worth 30 percent of its original acquisition cost, or USD 46,800. The differential of USD 27,000 in favour of the electric truck reflects the still-healthy battery state-of-health (around 80 percent, which is the threshold for second-life stationary storage use) and the unworn electric drivetrain.
Second-life use, by the way, is a real aftermarket: retired EV batteries are commonly redeployed in solar+storage microgrids at remote mining sites, extending their useful life by another 8 to 10 years and adding meaningful resale value.
Over an 8-year operating life, per truck, with acquisition cost amortised at 12 percent cost of capital:
| Cost Line | Diesel (USD) | Electric (USD) | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition (capital-recovered) | 84,300 | 130,500 | +46,200 |
| Energy (8 yrs) | 193,300 | 25,580 | -167,720 |
| Maintenance (8 yrs) | 26,330 | 11,770 | -14,560 |
| Residual value (gain) | -19,800 | -46,800 | -27,000 |
| TCO (8 yrs) | $284,130 | $121,050 | -$163,080 |
The electric truck is cheaper by USD 163,080 over 8 years per truck. For a fleet of 10 trucks that is USD 1.6 million in savings over the same period.
How robust is the savings to the assumptions?
The conclusion is robust across reasonable variations of the model: for any site with annual utilisation above 20,000 km per year, an 8-year operating horizon, and diesel prices above USD 1.00 per litre, the electric truck is the cheaper ownership option.
Several site-specific factors move the case from strongly favourable to overwhelmingly favourable:
There are duty cycles where diesel remains the rational choice, and we will not pretend otherwise. Long-haul highway trucking above 700 km per day, remote sites with no charging infrastructure and no grid connection within 50 km, very small fleets below five trucks where the swap-station economics do not work, and regions with subsidised diesel below USD 0.80 per litre (rare globally, but still observed in some petrostate markets).
Outside of those cases, mining and construction operators who have run the numbers consistently tell us that switching to electric is no longer an environmental argument — it is a financial one.
If you would like us to model the TCO for your specific site — with your actual diesel price, grid electricity price, duty cycle, and residual-value assumptions — send us the inputs and we will return a calibrated spreadsheet within five business days, no obligation. We will also share real-world operating data from comparable sites so you can sanity-check our assumptions against actual deployment numbers.
Author: Shaanxi Fenghan Trading Co., Ltd
Contact: sales@fenghan-trade.com | WhatsApp +86 15319431311
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