While the electrification of the construction equipment is still in its infancy, one of the Chinese manufacturers – Breton – just started series production of massive all-electric wheel loaders in Shandong.
According to the Chinese media (via Moneyball), the company is the first to launch electric loaders.
The vehicle is powered by a low-speed (200 rpm) electric motor, rated at 160 kW and 2,000 Nm, and can take 5,000 kg of load.
We don’t know the specs, but it seems that the battery capacity is its weak point, as it lasts only for five hours of operation. Then the vehicle needs to recharge, which takes an hour.
The first batch of Breton EVs to be 1,500 units!
This might be the biggest electric wheel loader ever built. In Europe in North America, we saw so far only small to mid-size construction vehicles, like the CASE 580 EV backhoe loader prototype.
Hopefully, soon the battery technology will allow to feasibly introduce more of this heavy equipment in EV version – maybe with the help of the latest cell-to-pack LFP batteries?
Source: https://insideevs.com/news/443197/china-breton-series-production-ev-loaders/
