There are times when a piece of machinery is so ideal for the job that you find it hard to believe it hasn’t already been created.
A Swiss company has retrofitted a massive dump truck with an all-electric powertrain to create the world’s largest EV, complete with the largest battery pack ever installed in a vehicle. And, because of its unique working environment, it generates the majority of its own electricity.
In collaboration with EMPA, the Bern University of Applied Sciences, and the NTB Interstaatlicke Hochschule für Technik Buchs, Heimberg’s E-Mining took a Komatsu HD605-7’s 23-litre motor. It replaced it with powerful electric motors and a massive 600-kWh battery pack. The crew named it the EDumper and put it to work at a quarry in Pery, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Zurich.
This quarry provides the EDumper with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to generate nearly all the electricity required to function. The truck loads up with roughly 60 tones of rock at the quarry and takes it to an unloading point lower down the mountain. The 13-percent gradient of the route down, combined with the large weight on its back, allows the Edumper to regeneratively charge its batteries on the way down, and the power generated is nearly enough to transport the empty truck back up to the quarry.
According to reports, the EDumper neither generates more electricity than it consumes nor feeds power back into the grid. Indeed, even in the winter, when snow chains greatly impair its fuel economy, its battery periodically requires a little charge. Over ten years, it will transport 300,000 tonnes of rock and save 1,300 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere by preventing half a million litres (132,000 gal) of diesel from being used – a win for everyone.
The EDumper costs around 2.5 times as much as the diesel truck, and its unique work environment cannot be recreated at all mining sites. But it’s a great solution to a specific problem.
Watch the video below to see it in action:
Source: Electrive