Staying on track

When it comes to alternative-powered construction equipment, there’s little doubt that electric-powered compact machines have gained the most traction.

“The 48-volt battery packs and the duty cycles of compact machines are well-matched,” says Ray Gallant, vice president of product management and productivity for Shippensburg, Pennsylvania-based Volvo Construction Equipment, which has five electric models either in production or announced for the North American market.

This technological advantage has made electric-powered compact equipment an easy market to pursue, says Chris Lucas, excavators product manager for Savannah, Georgia-based JCB North America, which debuted its 19C-1E electric compact excavator in 2019.

“Considering compact equipment can be operated with a smaller battery size at [a] lower voltage, we plan to make a shift to battery-type excavators for 10-metric-ton and below,” says Thomas Jaejin Lee, director of product management for Suwanee, Georgia-based Develon North America.

The rise of electric power

The use of electric power in construction machines is not new. Electric-powered machines typically have been used in the mining, demolition, aerial lift and industrial forklift segments but are now making their way onto general job sites.

Electric construction machines were a trade show curiosity as little as six years ago. Today, compact equipment manufacturers can expect to be questioned on whether they are working on electric models.

Much of that work has centered on compact excavators, with manufacturers using internal design capabilities or partnering with companies such as Whitney, New York-based Green Machine Equipment; Elma, New York-based Moog Construction and Buffalo, New York-based WhisperDrive to create electric versions of diesel counterparts.

An intriguing alternative

Most current electric models are electric/hydraulic, in which a lithium-ion battery replaces the diesel engine and powers an electric motor and conventional hydraulics.

A recent alternative is also on the market: Doosan Bobcat’s T7X compact track loader. Not only has Doosan replaced the engine with an electric battery and motor, but it also eliminated the hydraulics, instead using an electrical drive system consisting of electric cylinders and drive motors. The company partnered with Green Machine Equipment and Moog Construction in creating the T7X.

Doosan Bobcat started experimenting with electric-powered machines about five years ago, says Joel Honeyman, vice president of global innovation for Doosan. “We wanted to take some new technologies from other industries and do some unique things with the platform,” he says.

“With an all-electric system, it’s power on demand, only using the energy you need for the task at hand,” says Dave Grabau, key account manager for Moog Construction, a Doosan Bobcat partner on the T7X. “You’re not running at wide open throttle or dumping hydraulic fluid over a relief valve and wasting that energy. The powertrain is not limited by emissions tiers, such as 55 kW [kilowatts], or 74 horsepower. Now you can get more work done in a 5-to-6-ton machine that has a usable power range of 100 to 150 horsepower.”

Released in 2022, the first T7Xs were added to Sunbelt Rentals’ fleet.

Charging electric machines

If the goal is zero emissions, it can be counterproductive to charge your electric machine with a diesel generator.

“We’re really paying attention to the charging infrastructure,” Gallant says. “How do we get the power out to the job sites, and how do the job sites have to evolve?”

After developing its electric compact excavator, JCB came out with a universal fast charger designed to charge the company’s fleet of E-Tech machines. “We always try to make sure we include multiple charging options,” says Rebecca Yates, senior product manager for material handling at JCB North America.

To be effective, temporary electric job site power must be deployed rapidly without permitting or site prep requirements, says Desmond Wheatley, CEO of San Diego-based Beam Global. His company’s solution is a solar-powered, off-grid charger, the EV ARC 2020, which was showcased in the Volvo CE booth at the 2021 Utility Expo.

Electric charging requires a thinking reset, Wheatley says. While fast chargers seem attractive, their use is driven by the experience at the fuel pump. “If a machine has access to a charger during idle times, you can just top it off like you do with your cellphone. You just charge it whenever you’re not using it and not wait until it’s empty.”

Aiding this approach will be the advent of wireless job site charging, Wheatley adds. With the addition of a ruggedized receiver, a machine can be charged while parked over a charging pad rather than needing to be plugged into an outlet. “The wiring is already basically in place, you’ve just got to extend it to the underside of the vehicle,” he says.

Whatever their eventual form, electric charging systems likely will be rental items, Wheatley says.

Three hurdles

While some contractors have been early adopters of electric compact equipment, most are concerned with practicalities, particularly when it comes to barriers to electric machines, such as initial cost, run-time per charge and charging time.

Because of the present cost of batteries, electric machines typically cost two to three times that of a comparable diesel machine.

JCB, however, did a return on investment (ROI) study that showed a 50 percent ROI within three to five years, Lucas says. “There are no maintenance costs with electric machines,” he adds. “All you’re doing is charging the machine and filling up the hydraulic fluids.”

Electric machine prices will come down as increasing volume supports driving down component costs, Honeyman says. “On the flip side, the operating cost of the T7X is one-tenth of that of a comparable diesel-hydraulic machine,” he says.

Most OEMs are now citing a range of 4-to-8-hour run time for “average” use on compact equipment and an 8-hour overnight charge.

Customers naturally compare run times on a fully charged electric machine with a full tank on diesel units, but that doesn’t show the whole picture, according to experts.

“An electric machine behaves differently than a diesel machine,” Honeyman explains. “When you let off the joysticks of an electric machine, there’s no idle. An operator can get a day or more of productive work out of it because they’re typically not running the machine eight continuous hours a day.

“In comparison, the telematics data on our diesel machines tells us that significant time is spent with the machine simply idling,” Honeyman adds.

The bottom line

With an increasing emphasis on sustainability driving electric equipment adoption, the market is expected to grow significantly.

According to market analysis from Grand View Research, San Francisco, the compact electric construction equipment market size was valued at more than $50 million in 2022 and is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.9 percent from 2023 to 2030.

“Widespread adoption of electric equipment starts when it becomes economically viable,” Gallant says. “But everyone seems to be willing to see where it develops, and that’s encouraging.”

Construction can be a “fast follower” to the electric vehicle (EV) advances made in the automotive sector, Grabau says. In the meantime, Moog uses high-efficiency servo motors and electric cylinders to provide the best run time and lowest battery cost.

“While we’re going to produce diesel equipment for a long time, there are customers and applications that really want this new EV technology,” Honeyman says.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based international trade group that represents off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers. For more information on the group, visit www.aem.org.