Editor's Note: This story has been updated with more details about the L120 Electric's North American launch.
Along with the recent launch of the largest electric excavator on the North American market, Volvo CE has done it again with its new L120 Electric wheel loader, which weighs in at 20 metric tons.
That will make it the largest battery-powered loader on the North American market, when it is introduced here. According to Volvo CE, the introduction of the L120 Electric will begin in Europe in the fourth quarter. It plans to then roll it out in other regions, including North America, after that. A date for its North American launch has not yet been announced.
The company also revealed at its Volvo Days 2024 in Sweden the 15-ton L90 electric wheel loader and the 15-ton EWR150 wheeled excavator. Those models will be launched in select markets in Europe in 2025.
The L120 Electric boasts a 6-metric-ton lifting capacity and the same performance as its diesel counterpart. The company says the lithium-ion battery system can run 5 to 9 hours on a single charge, depending on the use, “across most light- and medium-duty tasks.”
It can be recharged in 7 hours overnight with a 40-kilowatt DC mobile charger on remote jobsites, or it can be fast-charged from 10% to 100% in 1 hour and 40 minutes with a 180-kilowatt DC fast charger, according to Volvo.
Benefits of using electric over diesel, according to the company, include:
- Zero emissions.
- Quiet operation.
- Reduce vibration.
- 30% lower maintenance costs.
- Rapid response time.
- Smoother cycle operations.
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“So there's a lot of applications that the machines weren't necessarily designed for, but we're finding our perfect fit for it,” Gallant said during the May 21 launch of the 23-metric-ton EC230 electric excavator at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Las Vegas.
“And when you start getting customers approaching you with those ideas, that's where you really start to transform the industry.”
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The loader also uses active cooling and heating of the high-voltage batteries, as well as passive cooling of the electrical motors, transmission and hydraulic oil.
Volvo says the new electric loader is entirely its own design.
The electric L120 gets many of the same standard features as the new diesel L120H model, which Volvo recently launched:
- On-Board Weighing – automatically tells you how much you’re loading with each bucketful.
- Torque Parallel linkage – provides high breakout torque and parallel movement throughout lifting for stability during loading and carrying and easier bucket filling.
- Electro-hydraulic lever controls
- Auto bucket-leveling functions.
The electric loader can also run a range of Volvo attachments, such as various buckets, forks, grapples, brooms and snowplows.
To watch the the L120 Electric in action, check out Volvo’s promotional video below:
Quick Specs
Volvo released the following chart outlining the L120 Electric’s specifications:
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