China's Tianjin launches freight train for NEVs to Europe

A container is lifted at a station in Tianjin Port in north China's Tianjin, Sept. 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

TIANJIN, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- A freight train carrying 110 new energy vehicles (NEVs) departed north China's metropolis of Tianjin for Europe on Thursday afternoon, marking the launch of a new international logistics route for transporting Made-in-China NEVs.

It is the first China-Europe freight train departing from Tianjin that is exclusively for shipping NEVs manufactured in China, according to local railway authorities.

The train is scheduled to run outbound through the Erenhot port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and arrive in Moscow, Russia, about 18 days later. The NEVs produced in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region can now reach Central Asia and European countries in nearly two weeks through the newly launched route, which is expected to significantly reduce transportation time compared to traditional shipping routes, according to the cargo agent of the new train service, SWIFT Transport Group.

By the end of November, Tianjin, a main node of China's transport channel to Eurasia and one of the closest Chinese ports to Central Asia, had launched 634 China-Europe freight trains and China-Central Asia freight trains, transporting more than 68,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods this year, said the China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd.