A 1,000-hp vehicle usually exists because somebody wants to reach an irresponsible speed very quickly. However, BYD has found another use for that much power: moving 44 tonnes.
At IAA Transportation 2026 in Hannover, BYD Commercial Vehicles presented the ETT 44 4×2, its new flagship electric truck for Europe. It sits at the top of a considerably expanded commercial-vehicle range and combines outputs of up to 1,000 PS with a massive 651-kWh Blade Battery.
Those numbers are impressive, but neither is the one that makes the truck particularly interesting. That would be 20 minutes.
BYD says the ETT 44 can charge from 20 to 80 percent in approximately 20 minutes, adding around 248 miles, or roughly 400 kilometers, of driving range during the stop. Total range is quoted at up to 372 miles, equivalent to approximately 599 km.
The reason it can replenish such an enormous battery so quickly is charging power.
BYD has integrated support for 1.5-megawatt charging, moving far beyond the charging rates we’re accustomed to discussing with electric passenger cars.
For commercial transport, that difference is crucial.
An electric car sitting at a charger for an extra 20 minutes is inconvenient. A truck sitting still isn’t earning money, which means charging time becomes part of the economics of operating it.
If a driver can recover hundreds of kilometers during a legally required break, the argument against electric long-haul transport begins to look rather different.
BYD isn’t arriving in Europe with only one enormous tractor unit either.
Its IAA display includes new 4×2 and 6×2 rigid trucks, with 26-tonne Swap Body and Hooklift configurations among the vehicles shown. The broader European commercial range now stretches from 3.5 tonnes all the way to 44 tonnes.
That breadth matters because electrifying a delivery van and electrifying a long-haul truck are two very different engineering problems.
Small vans can return to a depot each evening and charge overnight. Heavy trucks need large amounts of energy quickly while carrying loads over much greater distances.
BYD’s answer is essentially to scale everything up: battery capacity, motor output and especially charging power.
Of course, a 651-kWh battery also raises questions about vehicle weight, charging infrastructure and how many depots can realistically provide megawatt-level power. A truck capable of accepting 1.5 MW isn’t particularly useful if the charger waiting for it can only provide a fraction of that.
That’s why BYD is pitching the vehicle together with charging, energy-management and financing solutions rather than treating the truck as an isolated product.
The 1,000-PS figure will probably generate the headlines. It sounds wonderfully excessive.
But an electric truck doesn’t need to impress anyone at the traffic lights. It needs to move cargo, recharge quickly and get back to work.
Twenty minutes may therefore be the most important performance number BYD announced.