U.S. contractors are now getting real-world experiences on Volvo Construction Equipment's first battery-electric compact machines, the Volvo ECR25 excavator and the L25 wheel loader.
Four Volvo CE customers used the two machines in a variety of applications for about a year.
The verdict? Zero-emissions does not mean decreases in productivity. Testers say they saw no compromises in digging depth and breakout force on the excavator or tipping load and dump height on the wheel loader. In addition, the units had full use of hydraulic power to any attachments.
To help show its operators what the electric ECR25 could do, one company testing the machines, demolition contractor Casper Company, ran a side-by-side demo of the electric unit with a diesel machine, both equipped with breakers. “It was as strong if not stronger [than the diesel machine] and that kind of changed everyone’s mind,” says Darrell Merritt, Casper superintendent. “I was shocked as well.”
Darrell Merritt, Casper Company, (left) and Jacques Marais, Baltic Sands, detailed their experience with the electric compact machines during a Volvo press event. Stephen Roy, Volvo CE president of region North America, moderates.
Where the challenges remain are in battery charging speed and infrastructure. “There are current limitations in terms of getting a full eight-hour day,” Marais comments. Still, he says, “recognize that the electric machine is going to give you something that’s really close to it.”
“My guys usually work 10-hour days, and we had to charge them at lunch and on breaks,” Merritt says. “If we were doing soft digging we got a little further, but not if we were using a hammer for 10 hours a day.”
