The EC55 Electric excavator has been designed by Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) specifically for the needs of the Chinese market.
The excavator was unveiled in China at the China International Import Expo 2020 and the first customer pilot machine has now been delivered to aluminium company Xinyuan for testing.
Xinyuan is using the 5.5t electric excavator from Volvo CE for ground grading and earthwork loading at its new plant in Liaocheng, Shandong Province. The customer trial will last 500 hours and focus mainly on testing noise and emissions. The project team will work closely with the customer to ensure improvements based on feedback received.
“China is the perfect place to test our new machines and gain valuable customer feedback,” said Mats Sköldberg, head of technology at Volvo CE China. “That is why it’s exciting for us to see this machine already operating at Xinyuan’s site, and how it makes their employees’ daily work easier and more comfortable.”
“We are glad to have this machine working at our site,” said Mr Yang, director for equipment management at Xinyuan. “As an environmentally-conscious company, we strive to achieve zero emissions. We are also happy about the low noise from the machine, which is what we needed.”
The Volvo EC55 Electric customer pilot excavator is described as offering quiet and emission-free operation, supporting China’s pursuit of green energy and green vehicles. It is based on its diesel-powered counterpart, the EC55D. Volvo CE said that it has been designed to deliver even better performance and controllability with the added benefits of quiet operation and zero emissions. The energy running costs are 50% lower and the maintenance requirements simpler, so the EC55 Electric should also achieve higher uptime and a lower total cost of ownership, said the company.
“We have used local solutions to put together a competitive machine that we believe reaches a high maturity level already,” said Sköldberg. “By combining the technology of electrical propulsion with connectivity, we offer an attractive overall package of low noise, zero emissions, high efficiency, high uptime, reduced operating cost and reduced total cost of ownership. We have full confidence in the success of this customer pilot.”
This excavator is not commercially available yet but during this research phase Volvo CE aims to bring it to maturity quickly so that it can be commercialised as soon as possible.
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