The development of new energy vehicles has reached a world consensus. Accordingly, pure electric vehicles have been identified as a national strategic emerging industry in China and a key field of the "China Manufacture 2025". This study reviews the history, technical route, and characteristic of the development of electric commercial vehicles in China. Combining the requirements of "zero-emission" and "24 h non-interrupted safe operation" in the Beijing Olympics, we propose herein the concept of “system engineering of electric commercial vehicles” with three core components, namely, vehicle platform, swap charging station, and operation monitoring. This study also introduces and investigates the key technologies of the three components. Lastly, this study discusses the main technical measures for upgrading the system engineering of electric commercial vehicles to realize a 5 million-level application of the new energy vehicle in 2020 and satisfy the application in an environment of -25 ℃ in the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. The study aims to realize a pure electric commercial vehicle with superior performance, no technical defects, and a forbidden application zone.