Electric Heavy Machinery

Kalmar rolled out its first-ever li-ion-equipped electric “medium” forklift at last week’s ACT Expo – but Kalmar’s medium isn’t like your medium. Kalmar’s medium forklift trucks can hoist up to 40,000 lbs. And their biggest models can lift more than 4x that. (!)

New Holland Construction released its first battery-powered mini excavator, the E15X, all the way back in 2023 – but enough of you called CNH to tell them your loads were just too big for the E15X. If that sounds like you, you’re in luck! New Holland is expanding its EV equipment lineup with the new, 2.5 ton E25X electric excavator.

The equipment experts at Liebherr have delivered a MASSIVE, 300 tonne (~330 ton) R 9350 E electric excavator the Assarel copper mine in Bulgaria’s Pazardzhik province, where it’s already delivering big efficiency gains.

On today’s pumped-up episode of Quick Charge, we notice how funny it is that Tesla makes a big Robotaxi announcement every time the TSLA earnings call looks like a disappointment.

First shown at last year’s Bauma construction expo, the all-new Mercedes-Benz eActros promised great range, awesome performance, and massive payload capacities from its new, HD vocational electric semi truck. Now, the company is ready to take orders.

In a move the company is calling breakthrough initiative, Lloyds Metals and Energy have successfully converted one of their massive, 650-ton class Liebherr R 996 excavators from diesel power to fully electric for the first time – and it won’t be the last!

In a move that Volvo is calling a world’s first, the company has begun regular production of its new A30 and A40 Electric model articulated haul trucks – making the first time electric articulated haulers of this size have moved from a pilot stage into serial production.

On today’s supremely clever episode of Quick Charge, we talk with engineers from MOOG about diesel, natural gas, and battery power – and how the ability to use any or all of the above on a single machine can help fleets decarbonize at lower cost, and with lower risk than buying different machines for each fuel.

APM Terminals has been electrifying its operations at the Port of Los Angeles over the last few years – and they’ve been able to effectively decarbonize and cut their fuel costs substantially. Those efforts have yielded another unexpected benefit, too: they’ve slashed truck idle times at the port by almost 85%.

The new electric-drive Komatsu PC9000-12 is the largest hydraulic excavator in the brand’s storied history, capable of moving a massive, 80 tons of material, per pass – at a rate of more than 8,000 tons per hour of operation.

While the US is still stuck debating EVs, the rest of the world has already plugged in and charged ahead – and nowhere is that more obvious than Africa, where one country has banned ICE vehicles outright and another is rapidly electrifying mines that are digging up the future.

Autonomous construction tech startup Bedrock Robotics has just closed on a $270 million Series B funding round that brings total investment in the self-driving roller and excavator firm to more than $350 million. (!)

What happens when you deploy 100 massive, driverless, and fully electric heavy haul trucks at a working mine? After nearly a year of continuous operation, one mining company is already finding out. Here’s how their great experiment is going.

Diesel-electric locomotives have been barreling along America’s wide-open plains for generations, and the century-old combination of consistent, high-efficiency rpm diesel engines spinning up generators to power high-torque electric motors has proven tough to beat. Now, Caterpillar is putting that century-old design to work in its heaviest tracked dozer yet – and the efficiency gains are incredible.

XCMG celebrated the launch of its new, massive XC9260BEWL and XC9260BEWD lines by delivering one of each to Australian mining giant, Fortescue – part of a record-setting $400 million electric equipment order meant to help slash the company’s carbon emissions.

Canadian mining firm Eldorado Gold is taking a big step towards decarbonizing its operations with a fresh order for ten fully electric equipment assets from the experts at Sandvik set to be deployed later this year.

Thanks to a clever, fully electric swing system and “boom up” power assist features, the big PC365-11 hybrid excavator from Komatsu promises better performance and serious fuel savings compared to conventional diesel machines.

French heavy lift and logistics specialists Mammoet are living up to their name with the addition of a new, mammoth-sized, 60-ton hybrid crane from the electric equipment experts at XCMG.

Scania is calling its first-ever, fully-electric 8×4 heavy-duty mining tipper Sleipner after the Norse god Odin’s famously powerful eight-legged ride – and it’s being put to work at Sweden’s Malmberget iron ore mine.

Develon is kicking off the holidays with seven new or updated electric excavators, led by its seriously impressive flagship offering: the new 25‑ton DX250LCE-7 battery-electric crawler excavator developed by HD Hyundai.

The Cat 793 XE Early Learner battery-electric haul trucks deliver all the performance of its diesel-powered siblings without the noise, vibrations, and harmful emissions – and now, they’re being put to the test at BHP’s iron ore mine in Australia.