The Assumptions That Broke: China, India, and the End of Fossil Growth Models - CleanTechnica

The article from CleanTechnica challenges long-standing assumptions about fossil fuel dependence, particularly in heavy freight transport and China’s energy growth model. It highlights a significant milestone reached in December 2026, when battery electric heavy-duty trucks accounted for over 50% of new sales in China. This shift contradicts the decades-old belief that heavy freight would remain reliant on diesel due to challenges like weight, range, and duty cycles. The transition is driven by fleet economics and total cost of ownership, signaling a market-wide transformation in the world’s largest vehicle market and undermining the notion that fossil fuels are indispensable for economic growth in heavy industry and logistics. Furthermore, the article details China’s broader energy transition, noting that despite continued economic and electricity demand growth through 2025, coal and gas generation declined year-on-year. This was due to rapid expansion of clean power sources—wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear—with wind and solar generation increasing by approximately 585 TWh in a single year, out