Hugelshofer expands its electric truck fleet with SuperPanther and Sany
The Hugelshofer-Gruppe is adding two new electric truck models to its fleet with the SuperPanther eTopas 600 and the Sany e263. The logistics company is using these new vehicles as a practical test to accurately analyze range, efficiency, and overall costs in heavy freight transportation.
Image: Hugelshofer Logistik AG
In 2020, the Swiss Hugelshofer Group added its first fully electric truck to its fleet — the country’s first 40-tonne electric semi-truck at the time. Since then, the company has continued to expand its electric fleet and opened Switzerland’s largest electric truck fast-charging park in Frauenfeld in 2024. In mid-October 2026, Hugelshofer Logistik AG announced further additions to its electric fleet.
The company put two new electric trucks into service: a Superpanther eTopas 600 manufactured at Steyr Automotive’s plant in Austria, and a Sany e263 produced in Changsha, China — the first model of this brand in Switzerland. The goal is to have a fully electric fleet by 2035.
The two new vehicles also serve as test subjects. “Over the past years, we have gained extensive experience with electric trucks from various European manufacturers. We have tested new technologies, explored operational limits, and acquired numerous insights in the process. Not everything worked right away. Yet it was precisely these experiences that propelled us forward and significantly shaped our electric mobility strategy. With the two new vehicles from Superpanther and Sany, we are now deliberately expanding our technological horizons,” says Hugelshofer Logistik AG.
In daily work, it is now necessary to compare and analyze options, with the company already able to draw on extensive experience in electric heavy-duty transportation. Hugelshofer focuses particularly on range, energy consumption, reliability, user-friendliness, service quality, as well as overall operating costs over the vehicle’s lifetime. The company has no preferred options: “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where an electric truck is manufactured, but rather how well it meets the demands of demanding daily transportation tasks.”
But it’s not just Sany that has its headquarters in China. Superpanter is also a Chinese company that produces the electric drive platform, software, and high-voltage electronics for its electric trucks in China. Only the final assembly of the eTopas 600 was carried out using components from European suppliers at Steyr in Austria.
The logistics company views the growing market share of Chinese manufacturers positively: “We see this development as an opportunity. Competition fosters innovation, creates new technical possibilities, and can also improve the cost-effectiveness of electric mobility in the long term.”