Electric Construction Equipment

Global construction giant Skanska is testing a “world-first” plug-in electric drilling rig on the largest infrastructure project in Europe.

I traveled to Austin to check out John Deere’s second-gen 310 X-Tier E-Power electric backhoe – here’s what I learned.

The UK’s first electric concrete mixer has successfully completed a three-month trial of commercial deliveries – a big symbolic step for the UK construction industry.

Bobcat is digging deeper into fully electric technology with its latest concept machines revealed at Conexpo-con/agg 2023. The leading construction and agriculture machinery company unveiled what it calls the “world’s first” all-electric skid-steer loader alongside a new autonomous concept model that’s in a category all its own.

Ampd Energy, a pioneer of urban construction battery storage, is powering large tower cranes for global construction giant Laing O’Rourke on a huge project in central London.

Regular readers of my Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column will know that I usually dig around Chinese shopping sites to find the wackiest and coolest little EVs in the world. That’s resulted in finding everything from electric submarines to mini electric Jeeps. But this time, I’d say that today’s vehicles are less weird and more awesome, especially if you’ve been looking for your own electric-powered construction equipment for your property or work site. These little electric mini loaders could be the perfect size for hobby farms and small ranches. And they’re pretty darn affordable too!

Laggards beware: No transportation industry is safe from electrification. It’s going to drag you, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the future. That’s true whether we’re talking about planes, trains, or automobiles, or even cement mixers. And not only are electric cement mixers now a thing, but you can order one straight from China. Learn all about it in this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.

German crane maker Sennebogen last week debuted a 50-metric-ton electric telescopic crawler crane – the first battery-powered crane in its weight class.

US battery maker Proterra and multinational Komatsu partnered in January 2021 to develop electric mid-sized hydraulic excavators, and today they announced that Komatsu’s first 20-ton class lithium-ion battery electric machine is ready for debut.

Some of you who follow this tongue-in-cheek series may know that I’ve long sought after an electric aircraft from Alibaba to bestow upon it the dubious honor of being featured here. I’ve gotten close, but no cigar. I still haven’t caught my white whale this week on China’s largest online shopping platform Alibaba, but they say if you’re going to shoot for the stars, then you’d better aim for the lowest one. And that’s what I plan to do with my very own electric aerial work platform. Or as we called them as kids, cherry pickers.

Dutch civil engineering company Royal BAM has announced a fully-electric asphalt spreading road paver, which will save more than 93,000 kilograms of CO₂ and 115,000 grams of nitrous oxide emissions compared to its bio-diesel counterparts.

Devon, UK-based EV startup Emotive recently surpassed its crowdfunding goals and now plans to develop its heavy-duty electric 6×6 to meet the growing electric demands of the UK’s fire rescue, farm, forestry, and adventure tourism markets.

Doosan Bobcat launched its new, all-electric Bobcat T7X compact track loader at CES this week, calling it the first fully electric machine of this kind to reach the market. Even better news for Bobcat fans: they’ve already sold a whole bunch of ’em.

But wait, there are already electric loaders on the market, aren’t there? What makes this Bobcat a “world’s first”? Read on.

Following a pilot program in Southern California lasting nearly a year, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) publicly showcased the capabilities and quietness of its battery electric construction equipment. The results of the pilot were announced live in Los Angeles today alongside a streaming event that featured a live demonstration of Volvo CE’s ECR25 Electric compact excavator.

So here’s the thing: I’m an electric motorcycle guy. And I’ve also kind of got a thing for electric excavators. Those two interests have exactly nothing to do with each other — until now, that is. Honda’s new electric micro-digger powered by electric motorcycle batteries is the cutest little hodgepodge of construction equipment that I never knew I needed.

Remember those days as a kid, playing with Tonka trucks? Back when your wildest fantasy was running your own cute little sandbox construction site, ordering toy trucks and cranes to move around loads of dirt all willy-nilly like those tiny drivers weren’t getting paid by the hour? Well, just because you’ve grown up now and had to start acting like an adult doesn’t mean you can’t still play with adult-sized construction toys! And now, with compact electric construction equipment appearing on the scene, you can even be the foreman of your own backyard construction project without bothering the neighbors!

Electrification goes beyond the passenger car industry and it is now starting to take hold in the construction equipment industry.

Case, one of the largest construction equipment companies, has unveiled a new all-electric backhoe, which it claims has up to 90% lower cost of operation.
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Volvo CE, the Volvo Group’s construction equipment subsidiary, announced that it will stop development of diesel engine-based compact wheel loaders and compact excavators in order to sell electric versions instead.
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