EV trailers are not a load - they are where every bulk trailer is heading. As electric trucks become common on UK roads, tipping and moving floor trailers will start to carry their own batteries and a powered axle, recovering energy on the way down and helping push on the way up. This page explains what an EV trailer is, what has already been shown and sold, and what it is likely to mean for 44 tonne bulk haulage in the UK.
Short answer: an EV trailer is a trailer with its own battery pack and an electric axle. It recovers braking energy, adds drive power to the truck, and can run its own equipment - such as a moving floor, tipping hydraulics or a sheet - without the truck. Newton Trailers of Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, follows these developments closely through its partners Knapen and Gigant, both now part of the Krone group. Newton Trailers - EV trailers explained for UK bulk hauliers.
Most EV trailers today combine three parts: a battery pack mounted under the trailer, an electric axle that can both drive and recover energy, and a control system that tells the axle how hard to work. Krone and Trailer Dynamics use a sensor in the kingpin, so the trailer supports the truck when pulling without ever pushing it.
With a diesel truck, an EV trailer works like a plug-in hybrid you can uncouple. With an electric truck, it adds range, because the trailer carries part of the energy itself.
Krone eTrailer with Trailer Dynamics. Krone has taken firm orders for its eTrailer since IAA Transportation 2024. Krone says the electrified trailer cuts a diesel truck's fuel use and CO2 by 20 - 40%, and its 300 kWh battery allows distances of up to 500 km in long-distance work. Krone and Trailer Dynamics also showed battery swapping, developed with CATL, where the whole battery unit is exchanged for a charged one.
Proven on the road. DB Schenker signed up with Trailer Dynamics in 2022 to roll out 2,000 eTrailers across its European network from 2024. In a field test with a diesel tractor unit, the eTrailer cut fuel use by between 24% and 55%, close to the 40% average Krone quotes.
ZF Electrified Trailer System. Shown on a Krone Cool Liner, ZF's AxTrax 2 electric axle delivers up to 210 kW and recovers up to 60% of braking energy, which also cuts brake wear and brake dust. It is built as a one-box unit for two- and three-axle trailers.
SAF-Holland TRAKr. SAF's recuperative trailer axle charges a battery as the trailer rolls, aimed first at powering refrigeration units without diesel.
How big the batteries are getting. E-trailer battery packs now range from about 200 kWh to more than 600 kWh. The most advanced systems give up to 295 kW of electric assistance to the truck, and in some uses can cut diesel consumption by as much as 50%.
For the first time, the Krone group shared one stand at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hannover with all its brands - Krone, Knapen, Schwarzmüller, Hüffermann, Trailer Dynamics and Gigant - with Trailer Dynamics showing electrified trailers. That puts Knapen moving floors and Gigant push-off trailers in the same group as one of Europe's leading e-trailer developers.
Electric trucks dominated the show. Tesla brought the Semi to Hannover, Sinotruk showed battery swapping and charging alongside its trucks - it has delivered more than 100,000 new energy commercial vehicles since 2023 - and CIMC Vehicles, the world's largest semi-trailer builder, has built its new Stellar Plan for 2026 to 2030 around an electric future, including a European initiative and its EV-RT system, in which the semi-trailer itself carries batteries and electric drive axles and works with an electric tractor as one integrated unit. CIMC launched its EVRT product platform at the Wuhan Commercial Vehicle Show, billing it as the world's first ecosystem for electric road trains: a pure electric tractor-trailer paired with an operational support base station.
The first self-powered tipping trailer. In Hannover, CIMC - present through its European brand LAG Trailers - showed the EV-RT tipping trailer, built on its electric trailer platform. It is self-sufficient: the trailer powers its own tipping, with no PTO or hydraulic connection from the truck, which makes it a natural partner for electric tractors. CIMC describes this as trailers that bring their own energy, data and intelligence to the combination. Among the trailer awards, Kögel won for a chassis optimised for electric trucks, and Fliegl took second place with a container chassis for electric tractor units.
The Krone group now holds every part of an electric bulk trailer. Trailer Dynamics, a Krone group company, develops the electric drive: the e-axle, the battery, and the sensing kingpin that lets the trailer pull with the truck without pushing it. Gigant, part of the group since 2013, builds the Krone trailer axle and showed its axle range on the group stand at IAA 2026 as the technical foundation the trailers are built on. And Knapen builds the moving floor bodies Newton Trailers sells.
Put together, that is a body maker, an axle maker and an electric drivetrain specialist in one group - exactly what an electric Knapen moving floor needs. For UK hauliers buying Knapen today, it is a good sign that the next generation of their trailer has a clear route to electrification.
Newton Trailers' view, from the trailer side: the big Chinese battery makers - CATL above all - are likely to supply the batteries and power systems behind most well-known truck and trailer brands, in the same way a few companies supply the engines and gearboxes behind many badges today. Krone and Trailer Dynamics already work with CATL on battery swapping for the eTrailer, and CATL used IAA 2026 to show batteries built for commercial vehicles.
For trailer buyers, that matters. If truck and trailer share battery suppliers, standards and swap systems, the trailer's battery can be charged, swapped or shared with the truck - and the trailer stops being a passive box and becomes part of the power system.
Since 1 July 2024, EU Regulation 2024/1610 has set CO2 targets for trailers themselves, even though a trailer has no engine. Using the VECTO Trailer simulation tool, manufacturers must cut the calculated CO2 of their new semi-trailers by 10%, and of other trailers by 7.5%, by 2030. Missing the target costs EUR 4,250 per vehicle for every gram of CO2 per tonne-kilometre over - around EUR 15,300 on a three-axle semi-trailer.
The rules are contested. Eight leading makers, including Fliegl, Kögel, Krone, Schmitz Cargobull and Schwarzmüller, took the EU to court, and in 2026 the CEOs of 30 European trailer manufacturers signed a petition calling for the targets to be reviewed. For now, VECTO Trailer is focused on box-shaped trailers such as curtainsiders and box vans rather than tippers and moving floors.
Why it matters in the UK: the regulation applies to trailers registered in the EU, not in Great Britain. But most trailers sold in the UK - including Knapen, Krone and Schmitz Cargobull - are designed and built in Europe for the EU market, so the push for lighter, lower-drag and more efficient trailers, and the case for hybrid and then fully electric axles, will reach UK hauliers through the trailers they buy.
Almost every moving floor trailer in Europe runs on a hydraulic drive from Cargo Floor, the Dutch moving floor specialist - Newton Trailers estimates it supplies around 95% of the roughly 6,500 moving floor trailers built in Europe each year, including the Cargo Floor CF500SL-C on the Knapen bagged moving floor. Today that drive takes its oil flow from the truck's PTO and hydraulic pump.
At IAA Transportation 2026, Cargo Floor faced the big question head-on - how do you drive a moving floor from an electric truck? - and gave an honest answer: there is no market-ready solution yet.
Workarounds already exist. Some bodybuilders, such as ERKES Nutzfahrzeuge, have fitted electric trucks with their own hydraulic systems to run moving floors. Newton Trailers expects the longer-term answer to come from the trailer itself: a battery on the trailer driving an electric hydraulic power pack, so the floor can unload with no PTO from the truck at all - the same idea CIMC has already shown on its self-powered EV-RT tipper.
Newton Trailers' view: we expect bulk trailers to carry their own batteries - eventually 500 kWh or more - with a powered centre axle for 44 tonne work in the UK, coupled to trucks that also carry 500 kWh or more, such as the Tesla Semi and the electric trucks coming from Sinotruk, Geely and BYD.
For bulk work that opens up real advantages. CIMC's EV-RT has already shown a tipper that powers its own tipping with no PTO from the truck, and the same idea works for a moving floor: unloading from the trailer's own battery, with the truck switched off or even uncoupled. Steep quarry and landfill exits become easier with a powered axle, and long downhill runs put energy back into the battery. A trailer with its own power can also run sheets, weighers, lights and pumps - such as the pump on a bagged moving floor - without the truck.
Batteries are heavy, and that matters at 44 tonnes. UK rules give certain zero-emission HGVs up to two extra tonnes - but not above the existing 44 tonne maximum for artics, and the limits for individual axles stay the same. So on a 44 tonne combination, every kilo of battery comes straight off the payload.
That makes light trailer design more important, not less. Ultralight moving floors, aluminium tipper bodies and efficient axles will help win back what the batteries cost in weight, and an e-trailer battery has to earn its place through fuel or charging savings.
Sales of new non-zero-emission HGVs are set to end in the UK in 2035 for trucks of 26 tonnes and under, and in 2040 for heavier trucks. Most bulk hauliers will make the change during the life of the trailers they buy in the next few years, which is why it is worth asking now how a new trailer could be electrified later.
Sinotruk's AI-V Intelligent Transfer Vehicle, shown at IAA Transportation 2026, points to where bulk transport may finally end up. It is a driverless battery-electric carrier - 141 kWh as standard, up to 282 kWh, with a 200 kW motor - that carries up to 90 tonnes gross, drives in both directions, turns in just over 4 metres and runs at up to 30 km/h. Today it moves shipping containers around ports.
Newton Trailers' view: the same idea will reach bulk haulage. Picture a low, driverless battery skate carrying a bulk container that tips, blows off, or walks out its load on its own moving floor - working 24 hours a day at 30 km/h. It will start where it is easiest: ports, quarries, AD plants and large waste and recycling sites, on private roads. The trailer as we know it becomes a body on a powered, self-driving base - and moving floor and tipping know-how will matter more than ever.
A trailer with its own battery and an electric axle that recovers braking energy and adds drive power to the truck.
No. Systems such as the Krone eTrailer and the ZF Electrified Trailer System work with diesel or electric trucks.
Electrified trailers are on sale in Europe, mostly in curtainside and refrigerated form so far. The first self-powered tipping trailer, CIMC's EV-RT, was shown at IAA Transportation 2026, and electrified moving floors are expected to follow. Call Newton Trailers on 01525 872466 to talk about future-proofing a new trailer.
Not above 44 tonnes. Certain zero-emission HGVs get up to two extra tonnes, but not beyond the 44 tonne artic maximum, and axle limits do not change.
Krone with Trailer Dynamics, ZF with Krone, SAF-Holland, and a growing number of Chinese makers including CIMC Vehicles.
See our moving floor trailers for sale, tipping trailers for sale and the Knapen bagged moving floor, which already carries its own pump.
These UK trade bodies and associations represent, regulate or market the vehicles on this page:
Road Haulage Association (RHA): the trade association for UK road haulage operators.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT): represents UK truck and trailer manufacturers and publishes zero-emission HGV registrations.
Krone eTrailer orders and battery swapping: Krone. Krone and ZF Electrified Trailer System: Krone. eTrailer battery and range: DAT. SAF-Holland TRAKr: Truck Parts and Service. Krone group at IAA 2026: eurotransport.de. Sinotruk at IAA 2026: IAA Transportation. Tesla Semi at IAA 2026: IAA Transportation. IAA 2026 trailer awards: FleetOwner. CIMC Vehicles electric tractor-trailers: CIMC Vehicles. E-trailer battery sizes and assistance: Global Trailer, Power shift. CIMC Stellar Plan and EV-RT: Global Trailer, Stellar shift and Global vision. CIMC EVRT launch: CIMC Vehicles and China Daily. Trailer Dynamics and Gigant within the Krone group: Krone group at IAA 2026 and Trailer/Body Builders. VECTO trailer CO2 rules: Schmitz Cargobull, Trailer/Body Builders and the 30-CEO petition. DB Schenker field test and rollout: electrive.net. Cargo Floor moving floor drives: Cargo Floor. Sinotruk AI-V specifications: Sinotruk exhibit at IAA Transportation 2026. UK zero-emission weight allowance: DfT.
Page last updated: October 2026. Newton Trailers - EV trailers explained for UK bulk hauliers.
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