Development of battery excavators

Reduction of CO₂ emissions must be realized worldwide to conserve the environment. From this viewpoint, our group constantly develops hydraulic excavators, etc requiring less fuel to operate. Our group is also developing battery excavators that will significantly reduce CO₂ emissions compared with hydraulic excavators with diesel engines.

We completed a 5t-class 2-way eco-excavator, the ZX50UB-2, (able to use either commercially supplied electricity or a battery according to usage conditions) in September 2005. We also sold two 7t-class battery excavators, ZX70B, in 2007 and marketed two in 2008, so now four battery excavators are in operation. The excavators are used in work for industrial waste and for engineering work at night.

Users assessed the battery excavators highly because they produce no gas emissions and generate little noise despite the fact that they have the same power capacity as excavators with diesel engines. Our group will continue to pour efforts into the research and development of battery excavators because battery excavators need much more improvement, such as longer running times and lower costs.

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