Background record: in May 2024, SAIC Hongyan’s H6 battery-swap tractor became the first Chinese battery-electric tractor to pass EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval testing — the homologation milestone that opened the current era of Chinese entries into Europe.

Two years on, the H6’s story is the most instructive certification case in the market: first through the gate, but with limited deliveries — because a swap tractor without a swap network is a truck without fuel, and Europe’s swap infrastructure is only now being planned (Swaptopus, from 2027). Certification is necessary, never sufficient: Hongyan had the paper; what it lacked was the ecosystem — service network, energy infrastructure, named reference customers — that our scorecard’s seven dimensions measure.

The H6 precedent also frames every current homologation claim: XCMG’s indicated 2027 Q3, Shacman X6000’s cleared WVTA, SANY’s approved-and-delivering e263. Fleets should read ‘passed WVTA testing’ versus ‘granted and registered’ precisely — the H6 shows what the gap between them can mean in years.