On September 17, China State Railway Group Company, Ltd. notified its subsidiaries in China that it will start to count the transport volume of new energy vehicles from October 1. The announcement stated that at present, China Railway has no restrictions on the transportation of new energy vehicles, whether it is using JSQ vehicles or containers, whether it is domestic transportation or international combined transportation.

Some freight forwarding companies in China began to promote their railway and intermodal service for new energy vehicles.

Brian Jiang, Rail Product Manager of Dachser in China, said, “New energy vehicles will become another main product of Eurasian freight train after notebook computers and white goods. We will see more trains for new energy vehicles.”

Bria Liu, CEO of Toprail in Shanghai believes that this is a positiv signal for the Eurasian railway and intermodal transport market, as well as China’s new energy vehicle industry. Liu predicts that her company will have more than 20 export trains for new energy vehicle by the end of the year.

“The decision to release electric vehicle railway transportation will affect the changes in the transportation specifications of other products with batteries, which will further expand the supply structure of Eurasian freight trains.” added Brian Jiang.

In addition, the industry believes that with the transportation of new energy vehicles on the railway, the capacity of the Eurasian freight train may be further inclined to high-value products in the future, which will bring an impact to the existing supply structure.

Brian Jiang from Dachser said that more information has not been released yet. “There must be technical standards and regulations, such as how to define a new energy vehicle that meets the transportation conditions, and what are the requirements for the composition and capacity of the battery, whether there are standards for technical specifications such as loading requirements… etc. The operating rules may need to be further improved.”

In recent years, there have been voices calling for China to liberalize the transportation of dangerous goods on railway, such as DB Cargo. Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of Geely Holding Group, the new energy vehicles producer is one of the most well-known advocates.