Recently, my country's self-developed new generation "Snow Leopard" vehicle, the "Snow Leopard" 6 x 6 wheeled vehicle, successfully completed a total of more than 10,000 kilometers of testing and verification missions in the Antarctic interior, filling my country's technical gap in wheeled vehicles in the polar interior.According to reports, during the 75-day mission period, this full-time six-wheel drive vehicle comprehensively tested and verified key indicators such as passability, stability and safety for rapid driving in five types of terrain: sea ice, sand and gravel, soft snow, hard snow, and solid ice.
Among them, the average speed on soft snow surfaces reaches 28 km/h, on hard snow surfaces the average speed can reach 42 km/h, and in hard ice areas the maximum speed can be stabilized at 65 km/h.The average speed of tracked vehicles commonly used in polar expeditions does not exceed 20 kilometers per hour in soft and hard snow.
During this expedition, the "Snow Leopard" 6×6 wheeled vehicle successfully completed four types of mission implementation in the Antarctic interior: "rapid transportation in the station area, rapid arrival between stations, rapid mission maneuvering, and rapid rescue support".
Public reports show thatOn the morning of November 1, 2025, China’s 42nd Antarctic expedition team organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources set out for Antarctica from the China Polar Expedition Domestic Base Terminal (Shanghai). It is expected to return to China after completing all tasks in May 2026.
During this expedition, two new pieces of equipment independently developed by my country were put into polar applications for the first time, and the "Snow Leopard" 6×6 wheeled vehicle was one of them.
According to reports, the "Snow Leopard" 6×6 wheeled vehicle is a high-mobility wheeled vehicle system independently designed and developed by my country for the extreme environments and harsh working conditions of the polar interior. Its successful application is a key support for the development of my country's polar land vehicles in the direction of "systematic, multi-functional and sustainable" and is of great significance to improving the mobility and efficiency of my country's Antarctic expeditions.
Another new equipment is the THT550 crawler tractor, which is the first high-power snow traction equipment independently developed by my country. It is equipped with an independently driven four-track walking system, which can fully exert the maximum traction capacity on rugged ice and snow roads and adapt to the needs of complex polar road conditions.