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No matter if it's your first or fourth time here, thanks for checking out this week's TechRadar Crossword. Yes, I'm still having a lot of fun putting together these little puzzlers for you every Friday, so let's see how you get on with this latest grid-based arrangement of tech trivia.
TechRadar CrosswordMissed a previous puzzle? You can browse the archive and play all TechRadar Crosswords right here.
I try to mix a fairly broad range of tech subjects into each crossword to ensure there's a bit of variety, but it does require a lot of effort to stop myself from filling them with clues about gaming and movies — being the two biggest interests of mine.
I have, obviously, snuck a couple of clues in on those areas, given we technically cover them here at TechRadar in our gaming and streaming categories, but I'm very cautious that I don't just fill the grid with clues in those areas.
Reading more of the site has helped me broaden my horizons a little when coming up with clues, too. I've taken in more of the news we've covered and features we've written about AI, cameras, electric vehicles, and, relevant to this week's puzzle, solar panels, for example.
The latter is most interesting, given the news that plug-in options will soon be available to buy in the UK before the end of the month. It's got me thinking about whether I could add some to my home, if it'll be possible to find any of the limited stock.
Solar panel stock tracker incoming? Quite possibly. Enjoy the puzzle and I'll catch you soon.
- Beyerdynamic has announced the MMX 100 wireless and MMX 130 wireless
- The MMX 100 wireless launches on September 1 for £89
- The MMX 130 wireless arrives in October for £109
German audio specialist beyerdynamic has announced two new wireless headsets, the closed-back MMX 100 wireless and the open-back MMX 130 wireless.
Beyerdynamic's MMX gaming range expands with two new wireless headsets representing two styles of gaming: the closed-back MMX 100 wireless for players who want to minimize distracting ambient noise and focus on their game, or the MMX 130 wireless, which is ideal for gamers who prefer to experience the atmosphere, soundtracks, and ambient sounds in greater detail.
"With these two models, beyerdynamic is making its audio expertise accessible to an even wider gaming audience," the company said. "Rather than offering a plethora of unnecessary features and gimmicks, both headsets focus on the essentials: precise sound, high levels of comfort, flexible connectivity, and long-lasting quality."
The MX 100, with its velour ear pads and a lightweight 275-gram design, offers a closed-back design to reduce external noise, a detachable Meta Voice microphone for clear communication, and a replaceable battery that lasts over 80 hours.
It can also be connected to PCs, consoles, smartphones, and handheld devices via Bluetooth 6.0, the included low-latency USB dongle, or a cable.
As for the MMX 130, gamers can expect a wireless headset designed for audio enthusiasts, with an open-back design that balances "a natural, spacious soundstage" with external noise, whatever the user is listening to.
Sporting a titanium-coated 40 mm driver for precise sounds, the MMX 1300 is recommended for gamers who enjoy story-driven, open-world, role-playing games (RPGs), and simulation games.
"With the MMX 100 wireless and MMX 130 wireless, we're offering gamers not just two more headsets, but two different ways to experience their games," said Matthias Heilig, product marketing manager for gaming at beyerdynamic. "Those looking for focus and isolation will find it in the closed-back MMX 100 wireless. Those who want to experience gaming worlds as naturally and spatially as possible will find an exciting alternative in the open-back MMX 130 wireless."
The MMX 100 wireless will launch first on September 1 in Black and Arctic White for £89, while the MMX 130 wireless will follow in October, also in Black and Arctic White, for £109.
The MMX 100 wireless will also premiere at Gamescom 2026 and be available for public testing.
- Windows 11 can remove a discrete GPU driver as part of its clean-up routines, as shown on Reddit
- This can happen if the laptop has been in Eco mode for an extended period
- Because the GPU is effectively gated off from the system, the driver is marked as unused and therefore deleted by the OS during clean-up – but you can stop this from happening
Apparently, Windows 11 can end up stripping away the discrete GPU driver from your laptop in certain scenarios if the OS is left to run in Eco mode for a long time – and that's a distinct annoyance if you own a gaming laptop, as per a report on Reddit.
Wccftech spotted a Redditor who posted about their Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop with a discrete Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti, and how Windows turned off that GPU.
At this point, some of you may immediately be thinking: who runs their gaming laptop in Eco mode? And that's a fair point, and one raised in the Reddit thread – I'll come back to that.
First, let's look at the mechanics of how this works, based on the Redditor's investigation of what went on (they noted that it "took me months to work this out"). When the laptop is put into Eco mode, power is completely cut to the discrete GPU, effectively leaving it offline (just as if it were an unplugged USB stick, as the Redditor describes).
That's not a problem – obviously it's a power-saving measure – but the issue is that Windows 11 runs a driver clean-up process from time to time as part of routine system maintenance. By default, this happens every 30 days, though the Redditor notes their laptop was set to 15 days, and this can be modified.
What happens is that if the laptop has been in Eco mode for a long time, with the GPU effectively walled off and not present as far as the system is concerned, and the clean-up happens, it judges the driver to now be superfluous, and it's removed.
When Eco mode is subsequently switched off, the driver doesn't return – it remains ditched, and the GPU shows as a 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter' instead of an Nvidia GPU in Windows 11's Device Manager.
The Nvidia graphics driver must then be reinstalled to get the GeForce graphics card functional again – and the same is reportedly true of AMD discrete GPUs.
Analysis: a niche problem, but an annoying one – here's how to avoid it(Image credit: Future)Let's return to that question: who runs a gaming laptop in Eco mode? No gamer really does this, at least not when they're regularly playing some of the top PC games on their notebook. However, someone might be a student cramming for finals and using the laptop for work, having given up gaming distractions for a few months. In this case, with Eco mode enabled to keep battery life up while studying, Windows 11 could disable the GPU.
Okay, so it's something of a niche situation – and the Windows 11 clean-up routines are useful for keeping the system streamlined. But it's not an unthinkable scenario, and Microsoft's OS should be tuned to be more careful around GPU drivers – and it'd be useful if the system could give a warning of such a clean-up happening (so it could be avoided).
That said, this may not happen in all situations. Another Redditor notes that they have had their Zephyrus G16 in Eco mode for two months, and the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti is still present and correct.
Whatever the case, if you run into this problem yourself, at least you know why it's happening. The fix is to simply reinstall the Nvidia driver, although the same thing could happen again if you're one of those people who regularly uses Eco mode on your gaming laptop.
You can apply a Registry fix to permanently stop the clean-up process, but I wouldn't recommend messing with those settings unless you're confident (see the Reddit post for instructions). Also note that you'll miss out on other clean-up duties, not just GPU-related activity.
A better solution is to simply remember to take your laptop out of Eco mode now and then (every couple of weeks), which will bring the discrete GPU back into play, and save the driver from being earmarked for removal.
The Redditor notes: "Or just keep the GPU visible now and then. Optimized mode in G-Helper turns the dGPU [discrete GPU] on whenever you plug in. Flipping to Standard [mode] every couple of weeks does the same thing. Resets the counter, no Registry editing."
- The BluHub reads and writes Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs
- It has 4x USB 3.0 ports and two card reader slots
- The Kickstarter Super Early bird price is $59 (about £40 / AU$80)
If you've got a fairly recent computer you'll be vividly aware that for everything but high-powered gaming PCs, thin is most definitely in: the pursuit of ultra-thin laptops in particular means that computers have shed their optical drives and many of their expansion ports to reduce their size and weight. But what if you want those things without having to live in World of Hubs, like I currently do? One Kickstarter may have the answer.
Thanks to our pals at Tom's Hardware we've been introduced to a docking station with a difference: it's a USB hub that also has a Blu-ray drive in it. The BluHub, as it's called, is a 9-in-1 PC and Mac dock that promises "everything you need in one compact drive". It's smashed its Kickstarter goal, which to be fair was a very low $700 / £512 (about AU$977). Pledges are currently sitting at $214,411 / £157,127 (about AU$301,250).
It's clearly designed for people like me: I've got multiple hubs and accessories in front of my Mac so I can do things like burn discs, attach external storage and read camera memory cards, and that means a lot of cables and clutter. This could be a more elegant option, and it's not terribly expensive.
BluHub 9-in-1 docking station: key features and pricing(Image credit: BluHub)The BluHub connects via USB 3.2 Gen 2 at up to 10Gbps, and it's bus-powered so you don't need a power supply. It's compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS and USB On-The-Go for mobile devices.
In addition to the expected USB ports (4x USB-A / USB 3.0) it has SD and microSD slots and a Blu-ray, DVD and CD drive capable of up to 6x Blu-ray burning speeds.
The promotional images confused me at first because what looks like a lid for the BD/DVD/CD drive isn't; it's just a place to park a disc or discs. The drive itself pops out of the side, with the same kind of mechanism as the drives in desktop PCs.
It's not remotely pretty, but it's a lot less messy than my desk — and the mobile compatibility means it's an interesting option for road warriors who need to expand their Android tablet or iPad.
(Image credit: BluHub)The retail price of the BluHub will be $129 (£90 / AU$180), but at the moment there's a super early bird offer of $59 (about £40 / AU$80) with a predicted ship date of November 2026.
Whether that early bird deal is a good one or not very much depends on your opinion of crowdfunders and your risk tolerance: they can be a great way to get in on the ground floor and save some money, but you're buying something without the benefit of being able to read reviews or see what customers have to say, and there are no guarantees.
Many early commenters on the likes of Reddit also seem a little dubious of the BluHub's credentials, noting that the enclosure appears 3D-printed and that the listing doesn't reveal the make or model of the Blu-ray drive.
As always, all of the usual caveats apply — Kickstarter isn't a retailer and doesn't offer refunds after a project is fully funded, so consider yourself warned.
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Insidious, we meet again. For the sixth time, in fact. It's become one of the world's biggest horror franchises but the new horror movie is making me question whether or not it needs to carry on at all.
I should preface this largely negative review by saying that I was a huge fan of the first Insidious movie, and have been a fan of James Wan's ever since Saw. So it truly does pain me to say I did not have a good time with Insidious: Out of the Further, because I went in hoping to see an intriguing new entry, but what followed was almost entirely predictable.
Recently, we have seen some good horror sequels. Take a look at Saw X for example, which is infinitely better than some of the movies that came before it (I still can't get over how bad Jigsaw is). But Insidious: Out of the Further feels like a way to profit from the popular franchise without really adding much to it.
It's a shame, because it did have potential. Here, Alice Eve plays Gemma, a young mother who is raising her daughter in her childhood home. She lives a normal life until she discovers she can travel into The Further, which is a purgatorial realm of lost souls. Gemma realizes she can bring what lives in The Further back to the real world, which is great news for demonic entities who use Gemma to their full advantage. Cue carnage unfolding in our realm, and plenty of evil round the corner.
I first saw Alice Eve in Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor, and she is undoubtedly the best thing about Insidious: Out of the Further. As a new arrival to the Insidious franchise she's front and center of this sequel, and does a great job in the role.
Unfortunately, Eve's strong performance can't make up for the movie's many flaws. Insidious: Out of the Further is the scariest of the franchise due to the sheer number of jump scares, many of which have extremely loud audio to go along with it.
But the fact it was able to make me jump in my seat multiple times does not make it a good movie. The special effects and makeup feel really off, and not at all on the same level as previous movies. A lot of the narrative decisions frustrated me too, and I think it tries to take itself too seriously by stuffing loads of new lore into its runtime, making it feel bloated.
(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)It's essential to see the other Insidious movies first, which may seem obvious, but I would encourage you to rewatch (or at least read up on them) before you go and see Insidious: Out of the Further, otherwise you might end up feeling lost. This really is for die-hard Insidious fans who know their stuff, so casual fans might be left scratching their heads.
Insidious: Out of the Further does not come close to the quality we've seen in a wave of recent great horror movies. It pales in comparison to fresh horror hits like Obsession and Backrooms, despite the fact the trailer repeatedly reminds us that it's produced by the same people; Blumhouse and Atomic Monster.
Having said that, if you want to go just to be startled by a carousel of jump scares, it's a great choice. I'd recommend this for those who want to test their nerve, and it's best seen with a crowd for this reason. I would advise against buying any popcorn in case you throw it all over yourself, because the scares are certainly in abundance here.
But it's not a necessary addition to the Insidious franchise at all, and doesn't live up to the 2010 movie that started it all. After 16 years, perhaps it's time to put this franchise to bed for good.
- Researchers show how an expired contactless card can still complete a real purchase because the expiry date the terminal reads is not covered by its signature
- The attack needs physical possession of the discarded card and two ordinary smartphones, and results vary per bank, with Visa cards being susceptible in testing
- Existing EMV protections can detect the relay, but they are optional and were not enabled on any card or terminal tested, and neither Visa nor the notified banks have confirmed a fix is in the works
For a layman, the date printed on a credit card looks like a hard stop, but that might not always be the case.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that a 'zombie card' past its expiration date can be persuaded to complete a contactless purchase at a real checkout terminal, creating a real security threat.
The irony is that it is not that EMV cryptography is not bypassed in any way, but rather that card expiry is enforced in a different way for contactless payments, as a policy check between two parties rather than as a fixed property of the card itself, and interestingly, the parties do not always know who is the one checking.
Dead plastic can still be used to pay under certain conditionsBuilding on the last part, a contactless transaction involves a card, a point-of-sale terminal, the merchant's bank, a card network, and the issuer. Each holds a fragment of the decision that eventually results in a successful or declined card transaction.
The EMV contactless flow is only selectively authenticated: some fields travel between the card and terminal in unencrypted text and are linked to cryptographic verification later, opening a potential attack vector for users with physical access to an expired card.
The exposure here is not that those fields can be read, since the expiry date is printed on the card anyway, but that it can be changed with relative ease. The Application Expiration Date that the terminal reads sits in the unprotected portion.
In the Visa configuration the team tested, that field is not covered by the card's digital signature and is subsequently not cryptographically bound to the expiry value the issuer sees in the online authorization request.
While this should not be the case, it opens an attack vector for a device between the card and the terminal that processes the charge by simply modifying the expiry value to one that is still valid. The issue is compounded by a second issue: cards carry an expiry date inside the digital certificate used to establish the card-to-terminal conversation, and researchers have found that the certificate outlasts the printed date on the plastic. In essence, a check that might have caught the problem is looking at a clock set further ahead.
The scope of the attack, however, is narrow: it affects Visa contactless cards only, with Mastercard, Discover, and American Express rejecting the altered expiry outright. It also requires physical access to the card and two smartphones to pull it off, making it a slightly more complex endeavor, to say the least.
The irony is that EMV does have a protection that would essentially undo such an attempt altogether: Relay Resistance Protocol, which measures timing to detect an inserted relay and can stop the transaction altogether, but it remains optional and was not enabled on any of the terminals or cards the researchers tested.
The team notified Visa and the relevant banks in May 2025 and again in December 2025, supplying a reproduction guide, transaction traces, and a video. Visa's report passed initial triage, and the company's red team was reproducing it.
However, as of publication, neither Visa nor the notified banks had confirmed a mitigation attempt, and Visa also did not respond to a press request from The Register for comment.
The underlying failure, however, is based on how payment decisions have now spread across multiple players, including chip, terminal, network, and bank architectures, all of which assume that expiry is someone else's problem, an approach that could come back to haunt them and their customers. For now, the researcher's advice remains important until a fix is rolled out: stop treating dead plastic as harmless, destroy the underlying chip, and cut through the card numbers to prevent abuse.
- Apple Music will soon force artists to label their AI-generated tunes
- It follows moves from rival streaming services to limit AI music
- Some users want Apple to outright ban AI tracks from its platform
The subject of music generated by artificial intelligence (AI) has become a hot topic over the last couple of years, with the matter proving to be deeply polarizing among music lovers. Now, Apple is stepping in to enforce AI tags in Apple Music — but some users don’t think it’s going far enough.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple sent out emails to “industry partners” earlier this week outlining its position. Those messages made it clear that AI labels will start appearing “later this year” and won't be optional.
“Content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated,” Apple said. “We define AI-platform-generated content as anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service.”
This comes a few months after Apple started allowing record labels and artists to voluntarily signal that tracks were made with AI assistance through so-called ‘Transparency Tags.’ The latest update goes further, though, requiring music distributors to flag AI content so consumers know exactly what they’re getting.
AI fraud and streaming manipulation(Image credit: TechRadar)Apple didn’t outline how exactly it would enforce its new policy. It follows a similar move from Spotify, which revealed earlier this month that it would start labeling AI artists and would exclude them from curated and algorithmic recommendations. Rival service Tidal no longer pays uploaders if it detects that their submissions were made with AI.
Apple Music's new course of action comes amid growing disquiet over the use of AI in music creation. Popular concern over AI tracks has grown so much that tools like Detect Music have emerged to help people identify whether AI was used in the music they listen to.
Surveying social media, it’s clear that plenty of people support Apple’s move. “Good, but that took way too long,” lamented one person on Reddit. Another user wondered, “I might switch over to Apple Music once this is implemented, if there’s also an option to block AI content.”
Yet for others, Apple isn’t going far enough. “As a paying customer, you should be able to block it as a setting,” said one, while another contended that AI-generated music “shouldn’t be on the platform at all.” One Redditor was blunt, arguing that a “Better move would be to outright ban it.”
For many, the problem with AI music is a double one: feeling duped by the lack of artistry when a machine created the tracks you listen to, and concern that genuine musicians are being squeezed out as a result. Add to that the known cases of fraud and streaming manipulation that are often tied to the use of AI in music, and it’s clear that Apple felt that something had to be done.
With the proliferation of AI music-generation services like Suno and Beatoven, this is not a problem that will disappear overnight. But with AI tunes appearing to be highly unpopular — at least once they’re identified as such — Apple’s latest move could help to make a dent in their spread.
- Four GEEKOM A9 Mega mini PCs link together through simple USB4 cables
- Each unit runs on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor chip
- Combined cluster memory reaches 512GB across all four connected systems
Geekom has released the DeepSeek V4 Flash model across four A9 Mega mini PCs, forming a distributed cluster aimed at enterprise AI workloads.
The setup connects the devices through USB4 rather than relying on a traditional data center server.
Each A9 Mega runs on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, which combines 16 Zen 5 CPU cores with Radeon 8060S graphics and unified memory in one compact chassis
Local processing over cloud dependenceThe four-node configuration brings a combined 512GB of RAM to the task, with Ubuntu, ROCm, and DwarfStar software distributing the optimized model across the machines.
An OpenAI-compatible API links applications and AI agents to the cluster, while USB4 removes any need for a proprietary switch or server rack.
The arrangement allows organizations to keep prompts, documents, source code, and credentials within local infrastructure rather than routing them through a public cloud.
Businesses could theoretically build private knowledge assistants capable of searching contracts, manuals, and internal reports without external exposure.
For agent-based systems, Geekom says the cluster can process tools, policies, memory, and logs before executing any action, with a technical path that has operated using contexts up to 250K tokens.
Performance numbers under scrutinyTesting reported by Geekom recorded approximately 14.61 tokens per second at single concurrency, while P95 time to first token reached about 0.42 seconds.
The company says the configuration also provides greater capacity for long prompts, rather than concentrating solely on faster short-response generation.
Users can begin with one or two A9 Mega systems before expanding the configuration to four nodes as workloads increase over time.
Each machine can operate independently, while connected systems can contribute to distributed inference when greater computing capacity becomes necessary for demanding workloads.
The A9 Mega mini PC itself supports up to 128GB of LPDDR5x memory, although four systems provide the stated 512GB cluster capacity for distributed inference workloads.
Its specifications include 120W sustained performance, dual M.2 PCIe Gen4x4 storage slots, and support for up to 8TB of RAID-configured storage.
Geekom lists the A9 Mega at $3,999 for a configuration with 128GB RAM and 2TB SSD, while the four-system cluster reaches $16,000.
The individual units also carry 126 total TOPS of combined processing output, with 120W of sustained thermal design power under load.
It also supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, dual 2.5G Ethernet, and four simultaneous 8K displays for professional environments.
The performance values above are vendor-supplied benchmarks without third-party testing - therefore, the real-world reliability of the setup for sustained enterprise use has not been independently confirmed.
- Vatn Systems will help Taiwan build AI-powered undersea drone command systems
- Neither side has revealed how much money this partnership actually involves
- Taiwan explores Vatn’s modular S12 drones for its future undersea defense needs
Vatn Systems, a United States-based defense technology company, has agreed to explore joint undersea defense projects with Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST).
The agreement, signed on behalf of Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, opens a new chapter in the island's search for naval modernization partners.
It arrives at a moment when regional tensions have pushed several allied nations to rethink how undersea warfare and deterrence should actually function.
Vatn brings modular S12 dronesThe Memorandum of Understanding lays out a framework for both organizations to jointly develop artificial intelligence-enabled command-and-control systems for undersea operations.
It also calls for the fielding of autonomous underwater vehicles, including Vatn's S12 AUV, a modular platform built for varied mission profiles.
According to details shared by both organizations, supply-chain and sustainment support based in Taiwan forms a third pillar of the deal.
Vatn's approach relies on a low-cost, modular design that lets its underwater drones be adjusted for specific ranges, accuracy levels, and sensor packages.
The company claims this flexibility sets it apart from legacy undersea systems that typically carry far heavier price tags and longer development timelines.
NCSIST, Taiwan's primary state-run defense research body, has increasingly sought partnerships with smaller, agile technology firms rather than only large traditional contractors.
"Taiwan is one of many allies rethinking what undersea defense looks like, and we're glad NCSIST sees Vatn as an integral part of that conversation," said Nelson Mills, Co-founder and CEO of Vatn Systems.
Funding remains unclearNeither organization has disclosed a financial figure for the arrangement, leaving analysts uncertain about how quickly the partnership will move beyond paperwork.
Taiwan has spent years courting foreign defense suppliers as it tries to close gaps exposed by a much larger and better-funded regional rival.
Whether a single memorandum can translate into deployed hardware within Taiwan's own shipyards and sustainment facilities remains an open and unresolved question.
Mills believes that the collaboration fits within Vatn's broader strategy of deploying affordable undersea autonomy at scale for American and allied naval partners.
The company frames this deal as one exploration among several, rather than a finished contract for delivered submarines or finalized vehicle numbers.
Vatn claims other allied defense ministries have shown similar interest in its modular systems, though the details of these “interests” are not public.
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense has not issued its own separate statement elaborating on the scope or expected duration of the agreement.
For now, the agreement reads more as an invitation to negotiate than a guarantee of new capability reaching Taiwan's coastline anytime soon.
Its real significance may depend less on the announcement itself and more on whether follow-up contracts and funding eventually materialize.
- A 350-ton electric mining truck just rolled off a Chinese production line
- Zijin Longking ZL230E’s battery holds 1,400 kWh, enough to power dozens of typical homes
- It charges from 10% to 90% in about 25 minutes
Zijin Longking has launched the ZL230E, a pure electric mining truck the company describes as the largest of its kind currently produced in China.
The company says the new mining rig combines heavy transport capability with a battery system designed for faster charging cycles.
Weighing 350 tons in total, with a curb weight of 120 tons and a load capacity of 230 tons, it suits ultra-large open-pit mines.
Massive battery system and heavy-duty mining performanceThe ZL230E cargo box offers a stacking volume of 125m³, allowing operators to move larger quantities of materials across mine sites.
It uses a multi-axle central distributed independent drive structure with dual 800kW motors for power delivery, a system which allows the vehicle to adjust power distribution while operating on difficult terrain and steep mining routes.
Longking says the electric truck can support continuous heavy-duty work while reducing energy consumption during transportation activities.
“This new vehicle is a powerful tool designed for high-intensity continuous operations in ultra-large open-pit mines,” said Huang Wei, president of Longking.
The ZL230E relies on a 1,400 kWh battery pack, making it one of the largest battery-powered mining vehicles available with more capacity than 23 Tesla Model 3 EV units.
Zijin Longking claims that this battery supports rapid charging from 10% to 90% in 25 minutes.
Such charging capability reduces downtime and allows mining operations to maintain higher levels of equipment availability.
China expands electric mining equipment ambitionsThe ZL230E includes several safety technologies designed for demanding mining environments where reliability remains essential.
Its structure uses Longking’s patented multi-ring beam high-rigidity frame design with additional control systems.
The truck also includes redundant braking, steering systems, and intelligent energy management features for safer operation.
China Construction Machinery Association president Su Zimeng said the vehicle reflects continued progress in domestic large-tonnage electric mining equipment development.
He added that the launch supports wider adoption of electric solutions across China’s off-highway mining vehicle sector.
Zijin Mining, the parent company of Longking, has expanded its electric mining truck fleet from 13 units in 2020 to 1,719 units in 2025.
The company plans to replace its fuel-powered mining trucks with electric alternatives within three years under its carbon reduction strategy.
Earlier in 2026, Longking delivered 15 pure electric mining trucks with 150-ton load capacity to Julong Copper Mine.
Those vehicles recorded daily transport volumes exceeding 2,000 tons with equipment availability above 90%.
Their transport energy consumption was reduced by more than 17% compared with similar products, according to company information.
“We are accelerating the development of new energy mining equipment through independent research and innovation,” said Xie Xiongwei, vice president of Zijin Mining and chairman of Zijin Longking.
The company plans to combine electric trucks with renewable power sources, energy storage systems, charging facilities, and swapping infrastructure.